•f" ' o 



HOW TO LIVE 
AT THE FRONT 

TIPS FOR AMERICAN SOLDIERS 



HECTOR MACQUARRIE, BA. Cahtab. 









Class . 

Book 



CCPYRIGHT DEPGSm, 



Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2011 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/howtoliveatfront01macq 



HOW TO LIVE 
AT THE FRONT 

TIPS FOR AMERICAN SOLDIERS 




SIX DAYS' LEAVE 

By R. Tait McKenzie 
A Seaforth Highlander, in full field equipment — with a German helmet 
ari a trophy — going home on leave. He'll enjoj- it! 



HOW TO LIVE 
AT THE FRONT 

TIPS FOR AMERICAN SOLDIERS 



BY 
HECTOR IVIACQUARRIE, B.A. Cantab. 

SECOND LIEUTENANT, ROYAL FIELD AHTILLERT 



12 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS 




PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON 
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 






COPTRIOHT, I9l7t BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPA 



.T / 



PKINTID BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 

AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARB PRESS 

PHILADELPHIA. U. ». A. 




SEP 20 (JI7 ' 



©CI,A476157 '^ 
1^^ '. . 



^ 

''£. 



IN IVIEMORY OF 
DOROTHY H. P. HUMPHERY 



PREFACE 

During my stay in America I have been 
asked many questions about things at the 
front. In spite of the valiant efforts of 
newspaper men the impression still pre- 
vails that the present war is a continuous 
battle of Gettysburg. People have often 
said to me, ' ' But you haven't actually been 
in the front line trench, not in the very 
front." They cannot appreciate the fact 
that when a nation is in arms abnormal 
conditions, although they prevail, cannot 
be appreciated for any length of time by 
ordinary people. It seems to them im- 
possible for a person to exist for many 
days in a fire trench without being killed 
or going insane. Human nature fortu- 
nately is very adaptable and one some- 
times spends some very amusing and 
interesting hours in the actual trenches 

7 



8 PREFACE 

perhaps only one hundred yards from 
the Germans. 

Generally it is a small percentage of the 
men in an army who are actually grap- 
pling with the enemy. Hence a large per- 
centage of one's life at the front is spent 
imder similar conditions to those prevail- 
ing in a military practice camp. Perhaps 
conditions will change. 

I have had the honor of addressing 
young officers and men here preparing for 
active service, and have followed informal 
lines, giving straight tips about the things 
that struck me more forcibly in training 
and at the front. In this book I have fol- 
lowed similar lines. This and the fact of 
my having to work under pressure in the 
preparation of the manuscript will explain 
its informal treatment. 

When you go to France you will enter 
upon new experiences with the Poilus, the 
Tommies, acquaintances behind the lines, 
with the enemy and, last but not least, with 



PREFACE 9 

yourself. In that life there will be a great 
deal whieli is not found on the official 
military text-hooks or presented in the 
pictorial or literary accounts of staff 
reporters. 

I want to point out to you the little 
things in warfare — ^the ordinary personal 
things, the things that are not a bit thril- 
ling or exciting. In the process I hope to 
show you how to avoid making other 
people, as well as yourself, suffer; the 
other people may be your comrades, your 
family or your nation. Your life will not 
be made up of attacking the Oermans or 
resisting their attack — although there will 
be a deal of both — for the greaterpartyour 
life will be one of personal relations under 
peculiar conditions, upon a strange stage. 

It has many times been said that 
America will profit by England's mistakes 
— ^no one hopes that more than do I — ^I 
also hope that the American soldier who 
reads this book will profit to the degree of 



10 PREFACE 

recognizing that the good and bad of the 
war will largely depend upon the effect 
that fighting has upon the individual sol- 
dier, and that that effect, for good or bad, 
lies under the control of the individual. 
This book, giving you an acquaintance 
with the conditions that you will encoun- 
ter, may make you a more valuable sol- 
dier, one better able to look out for his 
body and his soul (both are in danger at 
the front). If it has this result I will be 
thankful. 

H. MacQ. 
July 20, 1917. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER FAGB 

I. At the Bakrier 15 

II. Fitting into the Machine 22 

III. Lectures 51 

IV. Aspects op Discipline 59 

V. Behind the Firing Line 80 

VI. Your English Cousins 94 

VII. The British Tommy 101 

VIII. Trench Life 107 

IX. Gas and Other Fancies 154 

X. The Four-legged Kecruit 175 

XI. A Curse of War 199 

XIL Rats, Pets, and Others 214 

XIII. The Folks at Home 233 

XIV. Some Reflections, Sentimental and Other- 

wise 241 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

*Six Days' Leave Frontispiece 

t A Halt on the Road to the Trenches 32 

t An American Tar Treated by French Widows 83 

t Madame and Monsieur as Hosts 91 

t Good-hearted, Hard-fighting Tommies 105 

t A Ram of Fire 129 

t Gas Masks for All 143 

t Ready for Gas 155 

t A Stable Behind the Lines 185 

The Author and Jack 202 

fPets 216 

t Her Ruined Home as Left by the Enemy 220 



* Original copyright by R. Tait KcKenzie. 

t Original copyright by Underwood & Underwood, New York City. 



HOW TO LIVE AT 
THE FRONT 

TIPS FOR AMERICAN SOLDIERS 
CHAPTER I 

AT THE BARRIER 

There are many men in America to-day 
who expect to be called out at any time 
for service. Never in their lives before 
have they regarded soldiering seriously. 
Possibly a large number do not know the 
difference between Artillerj^ and Infantry. 
Now obviously some men are suited for 
one branch of the Service, and some are 
suited for another. It is a good idea to 
think this out. Possibly you may have 
little to say in the matter and will be sent 
wherever the man in charge wants you to 
go. Still there may be a certain amount 
that you can do yourself in regard to get- 

15 



10 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

ting into that particular arm of the Ser- 
vice which seems most suitable. 

There will be a lot of men called out 
who loathe the very idea of shouldering a 
rifle. Civilization and its many drawbacks 
have made physical cowards of many of 
us. Centuries ago a man had to be able 
to fight. He was brought up to the idea 
of defending his country and his women 
folk. If he were a strong, husky fellow 
he survived; if a weakling, he was in- 
variably killed off. Nowadays we do not 
kill anybody off; unlike the rest of the 
natural w^orld, vdth us it is not a case of 
the survival of the fittest. Quite unfit 
people can be seen everywhere. Go into 
the lounge of a fashionable hotel in New 
York or Philadelphia, or better still, go 
into a restaurant about 1 a.m. in the morn- 
ing and you will see plenty of extremely 
unfit people. 

In England there were masses of them. 
They do not exist now. At heart the great 



AT THE BARRIER 17 

majority were really decent fellows, but 
civilization has had an evil effect. They 
enlisted by the score. Unfortunately for 
themselves they were morally brave, but 
physically cowardly. For years many of 
them had been using the capital of their 
power of resistance instead of the inter- 
est. Instead of spending the day out in 
the sunshine, most of their existence was 
spent under the electric light. Many of 
these men took drugs in order to keep up 
their spirits. When they found them- 
selves at the front, their position was ex- 
tremely cruel. A strong man finds an in- 
tensive bombardment pretty awful; a 
weak man cannot stand it at all. 

There are also lots of men who have 
led ordinary lives, but who are what is 
termed ^temperamental." You know the 
sort of chap. Now if you regard yourself 
as one of these men, choose an arm of the 
Service where you will not be too much 
exposed. Present your case to the doctor 

2 

if 



18 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

who examines you. He may not sympa- 
thize very much, but see what you can do. 
If all your efforts fail and you find your- 
self in the Infantry, stick it out. It will 
not be so very bad. In any case make a 
point of looking after your physical health 
as much as possible. Endeavor to develop 
your body, even at the expense of your 
mind. Your mind will not be of very 
much use ; indeed, it may leave you alto- 
gether during an intensive bombardment. 
If you are the kind of person who is 
wildly thrilled by Wagner ; if you are pas- 
sionately fond of insects, bugs, and things 
like that; if you feel sentimental when 
looking at a sunset ; or if you are conscious 
of the fact that you fox-trot better than 
anyone else, you seem to be suspiciously 
temperamental — so look out and do not 
join the flying corps. Choose something 
more suitable. Be a driver in the Artil- 
lery. It is dirty work in the winter, but 



AT THE BARRIER 19 

on most occasions you will be free from 
much that is nerve-racking and trying. 

Unfortunately, when a country is at 
war there are always a number of para- 
sites going about. A certain type is par- 
ticularly deadly when preying upon either 
the temperamental or the intempera- 
mental soldier. Stout ladies averaging the 
age of 35 and 40, in a subtle kind of way, 
while expressing much sympathy for your 
hard lot as a soldier, will let you know that 
they can supply you with some tablets or 
powders that will keep you up during 
times of danger. Avoid them like the 
plague. If you can be the means of bring- 
ing one to justice, and you will probably 
shrink from doing this because she seems 
such a sporting old girl and imbued with 
so much sympathy for you, you will be 
doing more than killing 20 Germans. Per- 
haps your parasite will take the form of 
a fat man with an expansive shirt front 
and a large ring on his finger. He will 



20 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

possess a large cheery face. You have 
often seen him near the ring at a prize 
fight. He will have a good working knowl- 
edge of man in general and is consequently 
dangerous. There are other types of para- 
sites about whom it is unnecessary that I 
should warn you. 

The average kind of man with a good 
healthy body will not find warfare so very 
trying. Some indeed rather like it. There 
are many men who with the greatest of 
enthusiasm join up right from the start. 
They feel that they must fight for their 
country, but just at the back of their 
minds there is a feeling that the whole 
thing is going to be awful. They will feel 
this mostly at night time before they go 
to sleep. Horrible visions of Germans 
coming at them with bayonets will harass 
their minds. The next day this will pass. 
Now the greatest sympathy is felt to- 
wards this t}^e of man. He wants very 
badly to prove himself a brave and effi- 



AT THE BARRIER 21 

cient soldier. I can only once more advise 
him to stick to the development of his 
body at the expense of his mind. At all 
costs, he must avoid the dope supplied by 
the lady of 40 or the fat sporting man. 
You know there are occasions when war- 
fare is too terrible for words. It requires 
all one's power of resistance. Stick to 
your guns, try your very hardest to remain 
calm, and all will probably be well. 



CHAPTER II 

FITTING INTO THE MACHINE 

Once upon a time there was a large firm 
of merchants whose chief business was the 
production of mechanical toys. Some of 
the toys were quite clever and a good deal 
of mechanical skill was needed in their 
manufacture. The country in which they 
lived was very rich and some of the fathers 
bought quite expensive toys for their chil- 
dren, such as small automobiles, also small 
locomotives that would run under steam. 
Unfortunately the coimtry had a big crisis 
in its history and the fathers refused to 
buy expensive toys an.y longer and things 
began to look very black for the mer- 
chants. 

One member of the firm had spent his 
apprenticeship in the manufacture of en- 
gines for big liners. This member sug- 

22 



FITTING INTO THE MACHINE 23 

gested that all the available capital should 
be put into a big plant for the manufacture 
of engines for ships. It was a bold step, 
but it had to be taken. The apparently im- 
possible often occurs in life. 

The merchants were fortunate in ob- 
taining an order for the engines of a large 
liner. They received the drawings, but 
only the fellow who had spent his youth 
in the engine plant could understand them. 
He worked very hard and the others helped 
to the best of their ability. Finally the 
drawings were understood and the raw 
material ordered. The work was tremen- 
dous. It was difficult to get experienced 
foremen pattern-makers, but they had to 
take what they could get and hope for 
the best. The foundry presented many 
difficulties, but some good men were ob- 
tained. The forge also had to be supplied, 
but the time was short, and if anything 
was to be done it had to be done quickly. 
They got plenty of raw material and there 



24 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

were masses of it. It arrived in truck loads 
every day and as the head of the firm saw 
it coming in he wondered how on earth he 
w^as going to turn all that stuff into a 
perfect engine that would cause the liner 
to rush across the sea. He was discour- 
aged but had to stick to it. 

After a time the raw material was 
turned into rough f orgings and castings. 
This had been difficult, but after many fail- 
ures a good many parts arrived at the ma- 
chine shops. Here the difficulties were 
very great. First the lower foremen did 
not know their men very well. The ma- 
chines were badly placed in the shop. 
Many of the foremen had to be dismissed. 
The roof started to leak during the winter. 
The department ordering lubricating oil 
occasionally failed. The men on the lathes 
and millers ruined a large amount of the 
work. Muddle and worry were every- 
where. Still they had to go on or else 
ruin would stare the firm in the face. After 



FITTING INTO THE MACHINE 25 

months of worry and trouble at last the 
great engine showed signs of being what 
it was meant to be. Finally it was erected 
in the ship, and as the head of the firm sat 
at luncheon on the liner during her trial 
trip he wondered how on earth he could 
have got the job done at all. The engine 
was not a very good one at first, but the 
material was good, and after several alter- 
ations and repairs and several trips across 
the ocean it got tuned up and the firm 
received many orders for other ships. 

If any of you know anything about the 
manufacture of machinery and large-scale 
machine-shop practice you will promptly 
discredit my fable. Perhaps you will be 
right to do so, but you will admit the 
possibility of such a thing happening. 

Great Britain and America are the firm 
of merchants. The large engine for the 
ship is their new armies. 

Now you fellows represent the raw ma- 
terial. The underforemen represent the 



2G HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

N.C.O/s, the head forenieu represent the 
officers ; the member of the firm who had 
spent his time with the experienced firm 
of engineers is your regular army. 

Your preliminary training will have 
been faulty for certain. If every member 
of your new army were a genius their very 
inexperience would cause certain mistakes. 
The fact that all you American men have 
had good educations is an advantage and 
a little disadvantageous. You have very 
healthy, strong bodies and will be able to 
stand intensive training. 

Many of you have not as yet been called 
up so I will give you a few tips that you 
may be able to see a glimmer of light. 

You know that it is during one's train- 
ing that one can pick up the little things 
that are going to be useful. Some of you 
already in the Service may have missed 
a great deal during the months that have 
passed. Perhaps these remarks will re- 
fresh your memory. 



FITTING INTO THE MACHINE 27 

In England when a man joins the army 
in peace time, he is sent to a depot and most 
of the rough spots are removed from him 
before he j oins his regiment. He is taught 
the elements of soldiering. When he ar- 
rives at his station or post he finds him- 
self with a few others in the recruit class. 
It is not very difficult for him. If he is 
a decent sort of chap, the older soldiers are 
willing to help. Being one of a few re- 
cruits, he is very much in the minority. 
He has to put up with a good deal of what 
we call in England ^'Ragging.'' It really 
does him a lot of good and after a year he is 
on the way towards being something of a 
soldier. Possibly the same thing occurs in 
the army of Uncle Sam. 

When the war broke out, there was noth- 
ing approaching a continental army in 
England. There were about 200,000 regu- 
lars. There is now an army, it is said, of 
about five million. This means that to 
every twenty-five untrained soldiers there 



28 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

was one trained one, and the same propor- 
tion applies to officers. To train effec- 
tively and rapidly the present British 
army we really needed the whole of our 
regular army, and that might not have 
been enough. Of course, they had to go 
to France, so the training of our first 
couple of hundred thousand was left 
mainly in the hands of elderly officers, 
N.C.O.'s, a few old reservists, and a 
sprinkling of regulars. In time, men were 
wounded at the front and they returned, 
some of them to light duty, training men ; 
but as soon as possible they were sent back 
to France. 

The actual firing of a gun, the actual 
killing of the enemy is but one part of 
warfare. Everything else leads up to it 
and that everything summed up in the 
words *^ effective organization" is most 
important. The supply of food requires 
the service of many thousands of men, at 
the head of whom are capable administra- 



FITTING INTO THE MACHINE 29 

tors with large staffs. Each man gets a 
certain ration every day; imagine what 
would happen if one hundredth part of 
the ration was not supplied. Ammuni- 
tion, horse fodder, clothing, telephone ma- 
terial are but a few of the commodities 
which have to be brought up at the right 
moment. The trouble caused by not hav- 
ing a new pair of shoes the moment the 
sole is worn out gives you an inkling of 
the tremendous machine working behind 
a large army. It takes experience to get 
it going, no matter how clever the men in 
charge may be. In the English army to- 
day it works as it should, but it has now 
had experience — paid for dearly. 

You will notice when you get to the 
front, and rather before you get to the 
trenches, that there are thousands of sol- 
diers who never kill a single German. A 
very large percentage have never seen one 
alive or free. 

At the beginning of the war in England, 



30 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

when a couple of hundred thousand men 
were called up there was bound to be a 
certain amount of disorganization, and the 
man who suffered most was the private of 
inexperience. He understands now. At 
first he did not and got a bit annoyed. 

[N'ow in America things are just a little 
similar. You seem to be going to have in 
a comparatively short time a huge army. 
The work of the Quartermaster's staff will 
be tremendous. His staff officers will be 
a little inexperienced and it may be that 
you will be the man who suffers. Per- 
haps as you have British mistakes to learn 
from, everything will work like a book 
right from the start. It seems that Great 
Britain did not do so badly, considering all 
things. She did her very best, as you will. 

In any case the organization of a huge 
army consisting of a million men requires 
the utmost efficiency, and when an army is 
really a mushroom growth, this efficiency 
is difficult to come by. It will come all 



FITTING INTO THE MACHINE 31 

right, but it will take a little time. An 
army organization is like a vast machine 
in which every pinion must do its part 
correctly or else the use of the machine 
will be impaired. Pinions take some fit- 
ting and machining. Possibly one or two 
of the pinions in your machine will have 
to be repaired or replaced. 

The time will come when you will be 
ordered to report at a certain place, and 
finally you will find yourself at the rail- 
way station saying ^^ Good-bye" to your 
friends and relatives. You will feel a bit 
of a hero. Make the most of it, for except 
when visiting your home you'll never feel 
a hero again until you return for good. 
In the train you will find many others 
going to the same post or camp with you. 
You will get enthusiastic and doubtless, 
as the train passes through the country, 
people will cheer you, and you will all 
sing some song or other. I wonder what 
the song will be ? * ' Tipperary ' ' got so stale 



32 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

in England that if you now sing it to a 
British Tommy he feels faint. It may in- 
deed happen that the train will be de- 
layed on the journey perhaps for hours. 
Meal-time will arrive, but there will be no 
food. The people looking after supplies 
did not expect the train to be delayed; 
therefore, take some food with you and 
something to drink. The water on the 
train may get used up. You will be told 
that on your arrival at the camp or post 
you will be supplied mth towels, etc., and 
uniform. Don't be surprised if you have 
to wait many days, many weeks for both 
towel and uniform ; therefore, if you can 
take a thin extra shirt with you and a 
towel, do so. Many recruits in England 
had to dry themselves on pocket handker- 
chiefs for weeks. They were easy to wash 
but to dry them was difficult. People 
have a habit of pinching things in the 
army. Don't forget to take two tooth 
brushes with you. People even pinch 



FITTING INTO THE MACHINE 33 

these for some reason or other, possibly 
to clean buttons with. When you arrive 
at the post it may be late at night, but you 
will find that as soon as possible they will 
get some food for you. Don't be sur- 
prised if you don't get any milk in your 
coffee. There may be no butter. The food 
may be rough, but it will be clean. That 
night you will get a good meal. The next 
day you will have to look after yourself. 
Things will seem a bit horrible to you. 
There will be a long line of other rookies 
waiting for food. If you can be near the 
top of the line, be there. If you are at the 
end, it may be that the food will have run 
out and you'll get none. This will be 
owing to the inexperience of the man dish- 
ing out the food. He'll soon learn ; so will 
you. However, when you are left you will 
go to the Y.M.C.A. or the Regimental can- 
teen and buy a tin of sardines. They are 
safer than tinned lobster or salmon. You 
will get some rather weak coffee, but even 

3 



34 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

here at the canteen the food may run out. 
Expect all these things. They can't be 
helped at first. In a day or two all will be 
well and soon the food problem will be 
solved. 

You may find at the beginning that 
parades are very short. There will be a 
shortage of officers and N.C.O.'s. Some 
fellows will find that it is easy to avoid 
parades. They'll get caught in the end. 
If you are a mounted soldier in the Gun- 
ners or the Cavalry, you will be ordered 
to attend stables at a certain hour. There 
will be about six men to every horse, and 
you will find that the stable hour will drag. 
You will get blazes if you are caught doing 
nothing. So do something. Once more, 
some fellows will avoid stables. They also 
will get nipped in time. 

You will at first find that discipline is 
a little lax in spots. Sometimes, and when 
you least expect it, it will be very severe. 
There will be a good deal of time on your 



FITTING INTO THE ]!^IACHINE 35 

hands, but don't be deceived by this, it will 
change. To sum up, take all things as they 
come. If you can keep cheerful, do so. 
Expect many discomforts and don't be sur- 
prised if you detect what you may regard 
as inefficiency. 

Like you, many of your officers will be 
inexperienced. They will do their very 
best. In the same way that you will find it 
difficult to march correctly, to understand 
certain commands, to handle your rifle cor- 
rectly, so they will find it difficult to look 
after you. You know that to look after 
you is an officer's duty — to see that your 
clothing is in good condition, to see that 
you are well fed and that the food is good 
and well cooked, even to see that your bed 
is comfortable, and most of all, to see that 
you are happy and contented. The most 
important lesson an officer has to learn is 
not to use his sword well, not to be able 
to give correct commands and to know at 
once when they are not being obeyed cor- 



36 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

rectly, not to be able to look like a peacock 
and salute his superiors; but to be able 
to understand you, to be able to look after 
you so well that you will respect him and 
be willing to die for him if necessary. It 
will take him a little time to learn this, 
but he will learn it. If he makes mistakes, 
try and put up with them cheerfully. He 
is doing his best and all the time he is get- 
ting blazes from his superiors — ^you don't 
hear it, or you ought not to. 

At first you will be only a part of a 
crude machine, of which the bearings will 
want much oil. Through patient work 
the machine will get tuned up. When you 
first arrive you will find a number of non- 
commissioned officers, sergeants, cor- 
porals, and the like — ^they will possibly 
be old soldiers with a sprinkling from the 
regular army. Look out for the old sol- 
diers. They are either very crusty or very 
affable. The affable ones are of little use 
to you. The regular army men are the f el- 



FITTING INTO THE MACHINE 37 

lows from whom you can learn most. You 
will find them very neat and tidy. Look 
at their clothing, it will be very clean. 
Their shoes will be polished in a wonder- 
ful way ; their hats will be clean and neat. 
You will note how they hold themselves. 
Try and copy them. 

From your ranks will be chosen a large 
number of N.C.O.'s. If you look a smart 
fellow, you will be chosen and you will 
rather enjoy the honor. You will write 
home about it, and your mother will tell 
her friends, and your father will be proud. 
Now be careful. An N.C.O. is NOT a per- 
son who merely gives orders to his men. 
He is placed in the position to get certain 
results. He may be a handsome fellow 
with fine shoulders and a commanding 
sort of way with him, but if he is not a 
man of character he is perfectly useless. 
The issuing of commands is nothing if they 
are not obeyed. Now you will find that 
with a little study the commands and 



38 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

manoeuvres can be learned. You will be 
able to put the men through their drill 
without much difficulty. That is all easy. 
But if one of the men under you does 
something wrong, forgets something that 
you have told him to do, he is not going to 
be blamed; but you are. You will find 
yourself, to your astonishment, getting 
blazes from your officer through no appar- 
ent fault of your own. You had been told 
to get something done and Private Jones 
had been duly ordered by you to do the 
thing. The officer finds it not done. He 
gives you blazes, you reply that you had 
ordered Private Jones to do it. To your 
amazement the officer only gets more an- 
noyed. Do you follow me ? If you are told 
to do a thing, it must be done and you must 
be man enough to see that it is done. The 
fact that Private Jones forgot is your 
fault. If he had respected you at all he 
would have done it all right. You will 
learn in time. Make the men under you 



FITTING INTO THE MACHINE 39 

respect you. Don't be afraid of telling 
them what you think of them. They won 't 
mind. 

The issuing of every order has a pur- 
pose. It is never done for fim. Quite 
often its object is the comfort of the many. 
Soldiers always hate a weak, wobbling 
X.C.O. They respect one who gets his 
own way. You can get your own way if 
you go about it in the right manner. Some 
N.C.O.'s get it by being brutal. They are 
fools. They die often. 

Let the men know, not by telling them 
nor by explaining, that you want most of 
all to do your duty by them. In the same 
way that an officer merely exists to make 
his men efficient and effective, so you exist 
to help him gain the same object. You 
must think of the happiness of the many. 
There are thousands of instances that I 
could quote. In the barrack room a man 
may make himself unpleasant to the others 
— sit on him tight. Some N.C.O.'s think 



40 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

it is a sign of efficiency to be always re- 
porting their men to the officer in charge — 
it is not. You are a leader of men. A 
leader of men seldom has to refer to higher 
authority. Be tactful. Don't ever ask a 
man to do a thing that you can't do your- 
self. Don't give commands that can't be 
thoroughly understood. If possible and 
convenient, explain the object of your 
commands. 

Some N.C.O.'s are always putting men 
under arrest. The officer is compelled to 
bear out anything they may say. It is a 
matter of discipline. I have often had 
men brought up to me and after dismiss- 
ing them with a few rude remarks I have 
kept the N.C.O. back and have given him 
much more than I gave the man. 

At the beginning there are bound to be 
many N.C.O.'s who have been unwisely 
chosen for the job. If you have been 
chosen and don't feel yourself capable, 
drop the job at once like a hot cake. It 



FITTING INTO THE MACHINE 41 

will be better for yourself and the men. 
Nevertheless, remember that you are fight- 
ing for your country, and you can do more 
as an N.C.O. than as a private. It will be 
very difficult. It will become impossible or 
it ought to be impossible for you to be very 
intimate with your men. I do not mean 
that you must cut your friends if they 
happen to be privates, but it will be a little 
difficult. This may seem funny, and you 
may think that it is different in the Ameri- 
can army. It will be just the same. In 
our army to-day all classes are mixed. 
They are not all serfs. When I was a 
private my cousin was a lieutenant, and I 
could not speak to him outside of his room 
where, however, I occasionally took my 
revenge. 

Warfare is a horrible thing and to-day 
it has become an unnatural thing, and 
therefore much that is unpleasant has to 
be put up with. After a few weeks as 
an N.C.O. you will notice that your friends 



42 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

among the privates will be a little dif- 
ferent. They will say you are getting 
** stuck up." They will discourage you a 
little. Things will become increasingly 
difficult. You will be getting into trouble 
with your officers, and when you get to the 
barrack room instead of friendly glances 
you may get the opposite. You may be a 
big man, a man of great character, and 
will be able to ignore this. You may have 
played on your school football team or 
have been something special at baseball, 
consequently it will be easy. On the other 
hand, perhaps you may be quite a little 
man with no reputation to help you. Now 
don't get discouraged. Stick it out. In- 
sist on the most rigid obedience. You will 
get it all right if your order has been a 
sensible one; and never, never give an 
order that is not clear and defined or that 
you fear will not be obeyed through mis- 
understanding. Therefore, think out your 



FITTING INTO THE MACHINE 43 

order and having given it insist upon 
obedience, even if it is a wrong order. 

Always take the blame from your of- 
ficers for the faults of your men. If a 
man is discovered by you to have com- 
mitted a serious fault, don't excuse him, it 
is not your business. For his sake, for 
the sake of your regiment have the fault 
punished. The man won't respect you a 
bit more for letting him off. This will be 
very hard. 

I once found a man asleep on duty as a 
sentry. It was very cold and miserable, 
and he, poor fellow, had felt a bit sick 
and having sat down, fell sound asleep. 
It was just before dawn and at the front. 
I turned my electric torch on him, then 
quickly turned it off. I wanted very badly 
to go away and fire a brick at him or start 
talking loudly to the horses near so as to 
give him a chance. I went over to where 
the men were sleeping, tired out and 
weary. We had had a long march. Then 



44 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

I thought of that sentry whom we all 
trusted to wake us in ease of danger. I 
wanted to wake him up and to give him 
blazes, and let him off with that. I went 
over and looked at him again. I thought 
of his family and the disgrace that would 
follow his court-martial. We were at the 
front, and you know sentries may not sleep 
at their posts. They are there to look after 
the men who are sleeping. If they sleep 
themselves there is no point in having 
them. Finally I roused him and he told 
me the sad tale of his feeling ill — yet if he 
had thought, he had only to mention the 
fact to the N.C.O. in charge and he would 
have been relieved. So I placed him under 
arrest. Thank heaven, he had an epileptic 
fit before his court-martial, so we both 
escaped. I told the major afterwards 
about what I had thought and he said that 
I had merely my duty to perform, and had 
had no business even to think. 

I remember once, in action at the front 



FITTING INTO THE MACHINE 45 

and being on duty as orderly officer, find- 
ing a sentry sitting beside the fire in a 
gun emplacement; I gave him every 
chance to escape, but he must have been 
deaf. I knew him to be a very good man 
and took the responsibility of giving him 
a good talking to instead of arresting him. 
I, of course, told the major about it and he 
agreed that it might work all right. You 
know officers hate having to punish their 
men ; all they want is efficiency, and if it 
can be got pleasantly all the better. Un- 
fortunately another officer found the same 
man doing the same thing a week after. 

So you see an N.C.O.'s job is a difficult 
one and consists really in leading men; 
not merely in wearing a few stripes. Try 
and manage your men well. Protect them 
not by letting them off, that doesn't help 
them a bit, but by teaching them and mak- 
ing them do their duty. Try not to lose 
your temper. It is often a good thing to 
pretend to get very angry when you are 



46 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

quite calm. As I said before, the issuing 
of orders is not the most important thing 
to which an N.C.O. has to attend. How- 
ever, there is a lot in the issuing of orders. 
Develop a big, sharp voice. Bring out 
your orders distinctly and sharply like a 
bark. You'll get fine results if you do. 
Feel enthusiastic about your drill. Make 
it interesting. Think of the men. Let 
them stand at ease occasionally. If you 
are instructing and not on parade unbend 
as much as possible. Make contrasts. 
Bring out your points ; give the explana- 
tion softly, but distinctly, and then the 
order as though you were going to murder 
every man on the parade ground. They 
will laugh at you at first, but stick to it. 
In all walks of life people who start to 
get results are at times laughed at. When 
they start to discourage you, you will know 
that you are doing something worth while. 
There will be a period, if I am not mis- 
taken, when you will go to your officer and 



FITTING INTO THE MACHINE 47 

ask him to relieve you of your stripes. 
You will feel a bit of a martyr. You are 
not. You are merely a quitter. You have 
failed to help your country. 

The greatest difficulty we had at the be- 
ginning was the training of N.C.O.'s. A 
man hated having to be hard on his pals. 
We understood and sympathized, but we 
had to have N.C.O.'s somehow, so we per- 
severed. The result was that the officers 
were overburdened. Out of two hundred 
men in my battery at the beginning, we 
succeeded in making only one really good 
N.C.O. He was uneducated and could 
hardly speak the King's English. He 
made some fearful mistakes in his com- 
mands. It was difficult for both myself 
and my men to keep from laughing at him. 
I remember before he was promoted, he 
was on sentry duty and I was Orderly Of- 
ficer. As I approached he shouted quite 
correctly, ^^Halt, who goes there?" I re- 
plied ^'friend," wrong for the Orderly 



48 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

Officer. As I remember it should have 
been ^^ visiting rounds.'' He replied, 
*' Advance friend, and ^reconize' your- 
self. ' ' He had everything against him, yet 
he insisted upon getting what he wanted 
always, and he got it. In private life he 
used to make or bottle the oil that they use 
in London for frying fish. I have heard 
that it is a by-product of soap. At all 
events, upon coming back from leave, he 
always tipped the major a box of highly 
scented soap. He finally became our best 
sergeant and few sergeants had the re- 
spect of their men more than had he. If 
he were ordered to do anything, the thing 
was done. He never regarded anytliing as 
impossible, and his men were the best 
trained gun crew in our battery. 

If you are an N.C.O., don't be afraid of 
doing something, even if you make mis- 
takes — only do something. If you are a 
sergeant, keep your young officer well 
posted up with everything. Help him all 



FITTING INTO THE JVIACHINE 49 

you can. Give him all the ^^dope" as you 
say here. Remember that all your mis- 
takes are his mistakes in the same way that 
all your men's mistakes are yours. If 
your officer is clever he will interfere as 
little as possible with your command or 
he will appear to do so. He, of course, 
must know everything. I remember on a 
bitter morning getting blazes from the 
major because when asked why a certain 
soldier had no cap I could not answer, and 
being near the man I asked him. This 
made the major red in the face; he had 
not had any breakfast; he was annoyed 
because I did not ask the man's sergeant. 
This is an unimportant instance, but, of 
course, my major was right. Except on 
rare occasions an officer will always work 
through his sergeant. This rule is elastic. 
There is one rule common to every army 
and that is the right of appeal. If you 
regard yourself as unfairly treated by a 
sergeant or corporal you have the right 

4 



50 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

to see your officer, but you must do it 
through the sergeant. He may want to 
discoui^age you, but insist. It is only fair 
to your officer and indeed fair to the 
N.C.O. At meal-time an officer will come 
round and look at your food and possibly 
ask for complaints. Don't be afraid to 
make a complaint if it is a sensible one. 
Many men don't complain because they 
fear unpleasant consequences. If your 
N.C.O. 's are good there will seldom be 
need for complaints. 



CHAPTEE in 
LECTURES 

During your training there will be a 
certain number of hours devoted to lec- 
tures. These may be very dull. The of- 
ficer giving them, possibly your own Com- 
pany or Platoon Officer, may have very 
little confidence in himself or experience, 
and will offer most of his information in 
the first lecture. I remember, when I had 
been in the Artillery less than two months, 
having to give lectures to men, some of 
whom I suspected of having as much in- 
formation about the subjects as I had. I 
hoped they didn 't know this. Incidentally 
when the lecture is finished, or just before 
the time arrives when the officer dare dis- 
miss you, partly for your good and partly 
because he does not know what else to 
say, he will ask if anyone wants to ask 

51 



52 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

any questions — meanwhile breathing a si- 
lent prayer that he will be able to answer 
them. If he is stuck for an answer, he 
may be able to ^* hedge''; that is, answer 
your question in many words containing 
little information. His words will be so 
vague that a feeling of exhaustion will 
creep over you and all interest in the sub- 
ject will have gone by the time he finishes. 
This may prevent anyone else from ask- 
ing any more questions about an}i;hing, 
except, perhaps, about baseball or foot- 
ball. 

Once more you will say this can't hap- 
pen to your army. Wait! ^*No man is 
^parfect,' " as the Jew said when detected 
in a crime and had no good excuse ready. 
However, the officer will be able to answer 
most of the questions except those meant 
as traps. If you can trap him, respect- 
fully do so, but be careful. It will be good 
for him and possibly interesting for you, 
although not necessarily pleasant. 



LECTURES 53 

Once, after six weeks' service as an 
Artillery Officer, having had no previous 
training except as a private in the 
Cavalry, I was ordered to lecture on 
the elements of gunnery to my section. 
The Major doubtless thought I might 
find out a little myself during the process ; 
and, at any rate, it would help me to know 
my men. I went steadily on my journey 
without shipwreck, keeping well inside my 
amount of knowledge and finally decided 
that I knew quite a lot. A certain Cor- 
poral with a clever face and a subtle air 
about him was in my section. I suspected 
him from the start. I did not know that 
he was a regular soldier who had spent 
many months on gunnery courses, and had 
been trained as a mechanic at Woolwich 
Arsenal. When I had exhausted my store 
of knowledge, not much I fear, I asked for 
questions. Everybody asked at once, 
''When are we going to get out to the 
front, Sirl" We probably would soon 



54 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

have begun to discuss the last winner of 
the Derby, or the German prison camp 
near — anything; but the subtle looking 
Corporal held up his hand and said with 
a knowing and confident air: **Can you 
tell me, Sir, when the angle of elevation 
is equal to the angle of sights" I shud- 
dered and made a bold answer, ^' Never.'' 
Then I talked a lot and exhausted him, 
but I felt very cheap. He knew he had 
got me. It might interest you to hear the 
explanation of the question. When a shell 
passes through the air, gravity or the force 
attracting any object to the earth's centre 
tends to draw it down. Therefore, if you 
merely point a gun directly at a distant 
object, the shell will fall short. To cor- 
rect this you point the gun beyond the 
object, in other words, you put extra ele- 
vation on the piece. It is all worked out 
for you on the sighting instriunents so 
you have not to calculate. Still a gunner 
has to know these things and understand 



LECTURES 55 

them. The sighting instrument may be 
out of action sometimes. At a long range 
one must elevate the gun more than at a 
short range. Gravity has a longer time 
to work and the shell at the end of its 
journey naturally loses speed and drops 
more. The shorter the range or distance 
to the target, the less will be your eleva- 
tion. When firing at very close range, 
there is hardly any elevation required with 
a high-velocity gun. The elevation put on 
the gun is called the angle of elevation. 
The angle you naturally put on when 
pointing at an object is called the angle 
of sight. It is really the angle formed by 
a straight line passing through the gun 
to the target, meeting the horizontal plane. 
The horizontal plane can be found when 
an ordinary spirit level has the bubble ex- 
actly in the centre. When a shell leaves 
the muzzle of the gun, being freed from 
the restraint of the steel, it jumps a bit. 
If you are firing point blank at an object 



56 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

very close, this jump takes the place of 
an angle of elevation. On an occasion like 
this, it may be true that the angle of sight 
is equal to the angle of elevation. On the 
other hand, it can be said that the jump is 
the angle of elevation. The Corporal got 
me, however. He had doubtless heard 
many other officers caught in this same 
way. 

Lectures can be interesting or can be 
very dry, according to the lecturer. I 
found their great value in getting to know 
my men. At lectures one always lets the 
men smoke, but objects to their slumber- 
ing with their eyes shut. If you must 
sleep (it is not good form), learn to sleep 
with your eyes open. Snoring is forbid- 
den as it disturbs the other men, and hurts 
the pride of the lecturer, who wdll take the 
necessary steps to stop it. However, to be 
serious, it is a good thing to try and take 
notes at lectures if you can, and take an 



LECTURES 57 

interest in your work. It will be easier 
in the long run. 

Napoleon, the much quoted, said that 
every soldier has a field marshal's baton 
in his knapsack. 

Sometimes an officer will take you out 
for a route march, and arriving at suitable 
country will explain tactics and manoeu- 
vres. This will be very interesting, and 
discipline will be slack until some fool 
spoils it all and gets fresh. Then similar 
occurrences will be difficult for all. You 
will find that your officer will want to 
make you as happy as possible on all oc- 
casions. You know the only reason why 
discipline is hard to bear and at times ob- 
noxious is owing to the fact that some 
men have little common sense and pre- 
sume on good nature. Officers often start 
off with the object of doing all possible 
for their men. They are sometimes lenient 
towards small faults and will try to get 
upon terms of friendship, though not 



58 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

familiarity. I don't mean that they will 
drink with you or tell you unpleasant 
stories, but rather that they will show their 
distaste for behaving like superior beings 
all the time ; and their recognition that you 
are as good a man as they. Some men 
mistake this for weakness and presmne 
upon it. Consequently some officers be- 
come tyrannical. 

Often you may think your officer a fool. 
Perhaps he is, but you won't be able to 
bet on it. Some people have made some 
bitter mistakes. I 've heard of a man turn- 
ing round on an officer and telling him 
some awful truths about his face. The 
man got several years in prison for it, but 
it seems to me that if a man can say things 
to an officer that are not respectful, it is 
often the officer's fault. You have to help 
to train your officers. Make it possible 
for them to regard you as their friends. 



CHAPTEE IV 

ASPECTS OF DISCIPLINE 

To the recruit saluting is interesting; 
it seems to him to be part of the business 
of soldiering. Later it becomes a nuisance 
and a burden, and he rather hates it. In 
England the matter is simpler than it is 
in America, for over there a great deal 
that is not bad in the old feudal system 
still remains. A youth in a village gen- 
erally touches his hat to the squire and the 
squire always returns the greeting. To do 
anything else never occurs to either. It 
is merely an exchange of courtesy. 

In the army in spite of discipline and 
its restraints there is much in common be- 
tween ranks. They are all soldiers from 
the field marshal down to the private — 
brothers in arms — so a greeting is neces- 
sary. Obviously one of them must start, 

59 



60 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

and it is a matter of cominon sense for 
the chap of lower rank to salute first. He 
has the opportunity, with work and en- 
terprise, of being in the position of having 
himself saluted first. Saluting still goes 
on at the front, even in moments of dan- 
ger. I don't think anyone insists upon it, 
but the men just do it automatically. In- 
cidentally they have learned to be glad 
to salute their officers. 

As a sign of bondage saluting seems to 
irritate certain people. An American im- 
bued with the spirit of freedom, unless he 
looks at saluting in the right way may 
possibly object to it as a sign of autocracy. 
Let hhn remember that it is just as com- 
pulsory for an officer to salute a private as 
it is for the officer to be saluted, and that 
the junior officer must salute his superior 
as the private must salute his officer — it 
is merely a method of saying, ''How do 
you do r' 

When the first British expeditionary 



ASPECTS OF DISCIPLINE 61 

forces went to France, orders were given 
to the men not to polish their buttons or 
their hat badges, and during the retreat 
from Mons and during the subsequent bit- 
ter fighting our men became a little careless 
about their appearance. This was un- 
avoidable. Men did not shave at all, and 
went about with beards. When the army 
settled down to trench warfare, it was 
found that discipline in some cases had 
become a little bit lax. Officers and non- 
commissioned officers, and, of course, 
many men had been killed. Thousands 
of reinforcements had been sent out from 
England, and the esprit de corps of some 
regiments had almost gone out of exist- 
ence. A general cleaning up became neces- 
sary, and in a very short time it was found 
to be a good thing for everybody concerned 
to have an inspection parade whenever 
possible. Consequently at the front the 
men appear as tidy and smart, if not tidier 
and smarter, than they do in England. 



62 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

Of course, in the trenches a man gets 
covered with mud and dirt. He has no 
time to shave, but after all, it is quite a 
small percentage of his time that is spent 
in the trenches. During the rest of the 
time he shaves every day, and if he be- 
longs to a regiment that wears brass but- 
tons, he even polishes these. He certainly 
polishes his hat badges and in summer his 
boots. This may seem a little bit foolish 
to you, but truly it is not. If the men are 
allowed to become slack and untidy in 
their appearance, their minds will also be- 
come slack, and also untidy. You know 
yourself that after a good shave and wash 
you feel a different fellow, and better able 
to face any difficulty that may come along, 
whereas if you are unshaven and generally 
unclean you do not feel half the man. 
Now in France it might be a good idea to 
remember this, and when going about the 
village make it a point of being as tidy and 
smart as possible. 



ASPECTS OF DISCIPLINE 63 

You will find during your service that 
certain regiments and certain companies 
have established reputations. It is a curi- 
ous thing, but at the front when one sees 
a company or a battalion marching along 
the road it is quite easy to know almost 
at a glance what kind of a regiment they 
belong to. One sees the guard regiments 
of the British Army a great deal. They 
represent our finest and best troops, and 
they always look the smartest A sol- 
dier must always look spick and span 
whenever possible. It comes under the 
heading of good discipline. 

The Germans have taught us many les- 
sons about modern warfare. It seemed 
to be their business. They had a good start 
and we have had to catch up. We hope 
that now we are doing a bit of the teach- 
ing. One thing is true, and very true: 
the German soldier is a perfect specimen 
of a modern fighting man. He is very 
brave and will fire at you after a bombard- 



64 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

ment in wliich a cat would lose six of its 
lives and all of its brains. All the Ger- 
man soldiers are thoroughly disciplined. 
Our most difficult task was to instill 
thorough discipline into our army — for in 
this war discipline is more important than 
courage. You see it enables the brain at 
the head of the affair to carry out his pur- 
pose definitely and clearly. It is like play- 
ing a game of checkers. If your men 
started moving here and there across the 
board, you'd lose the game. Even if one 
man moved you'd find it difficult. When 
a German soldier is given an order he 
obeys it to the letter. He keeps his own 
personal courage at bay as well as his 
fears. Under modern conditions this 
makes him a splendid soldier. 

You have perhaps often read of British 
soldiers being regular rotters in back bil- 
lets, always getting into trouble and al- 
ways undergoing punishment, and then at 



ASPECTS OF DISCIPLINE 65 

one moment doing something so brave that 
the highest awards must be given to them. 
This does not mean for a single instant 
that this type of man is a good soldier. He 
is not. The man who has learned to obey 
to the letter, who can be always depended 
upon to do his bit even in barracks ; who 
is never late for parades; who does not 
get drank too often; who is clean and 
tidy ; polite and respectful, and who defi- 
nitely wishes to do his best on all occa- 
sions ; he is the real hero. He is the sol- 
dier that any officer is glad to have. 

We all have the other fellow and cannot 
help loving him. If yon send him on 
orderly duty somewhere or expect him to 
work decently while you are away and not 
looking, you are sure to be disappointed. 
One goes on being disappointed. He is 
often such a decent sort of chap. All his 
crimes are apparently crimes against him- 
self. They often cause discomfort, how- 

5 



66 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

ever, to others. Obedience to orders is al- 
ways a soldier's duty. The Germans have 
learned this lesson, they have had more 
time than we have had or you will have, so 
it was easy. Still they have it, and if we 
are to do anything we must get it, too. 
It is very hard, this turning of a free citi- 
zen into the pinion of a machine. You will 
dislike it intensely at first. Still, it has got 
to be done. 

There are always about six men in every 
company and every battery who are rot- 
ters. They are always there. In a battery 
one finds them at the wagon line. They 
cannot have a very happy time. They are 
always up before, the CO. They are not 
the men who do the heroic things. They 
often do the other sort. You will find that 
the crimes that get the sternest punish- 
ments are the crimes that cause the other 
men to suffer. 

At Ypres we had to send a working 
party up to do some unpleasant and 



ASPECTS OF DISCIPLINE 67 

slightly dangerous work, that of fixing up 
a bomb-proof hole at an observation post. 
It was at night and just out of the trenches, 
so they were exposed to organizedmachine- 
gun fire. The enemy machine gmmer can- 
not see much in such an affair, but in the 
hope of getting some one he just traverses 
or trains his gun in quarter circles. He 
fires up roads, that is called enfilading a 
road. These men were under a sergeant 
as w^e had few officers, our battery having 
been divided into two widely separated 
parts. On the way up the party stopped 
to get some material from an engineer of- 
ficer. They saw a number of engineers 
sitting in front of a fire and doubtless 
envied them. They got up to the job and 
had a pretty rotten time of it in the mud. 
Half way through the night the sergeant 
counted his men, he ought to have done it 
before, and found one missing. He could 
not be found. Towards dawn they all re- 
turned and passed through the same 



68 now TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

trench. They looked in at the engineers 
again and saw them still sitting there, 
some asleep, the others smoking and con- 
tented. The missing man was there, too. 
While his comrades were working and in 
danger he had been spending the even- 
ing with the engineers in the dugout. 
You'll find just about six such gentlemen 
in your company or battery. They never 
do brave things, they never risk their lives 
at any time if it can be helped. One often 
wonders what their comrades think of 
such fellows. 

Some soldiers find it very hard to keep 
out of the orderly office, and, of course, 
they must be punished even against an of- 
ficer 's impulses. The things an officer will 
never forgive and always punish severely 
are the unsporting things — ^letting other 
people do your work, for instance, while 
you slack. 

Smart appearance, as I have said, al- 
ways seems to be an essential quality in a 



ASPECTS OF DISCIPLINE 69 

good soldier. The fellows who are gen- 
erally seen waiting for trial outside the 
orderly room look the part in spite of their 
efforts to clean up. On the other hand, 
the fellow whom you know to be a first- 
class man is generally very particular 
about his appearance. 

In peace time this sort of thing is de- 
veloped easily. The older soldiers take the 
necessary steps to make the recruit clean 
and smart, even if it comes to bathing him 
forcibly in the horse trough. When a new 
army is established the matter is different 
and it takes a long time for a man to real- 
ize the importance of this feature of dis- 
cipline. It comes in the end. Much de- 
pends upon the officers. If an officer is 
particular about his turn-out, it generally 
results that the N.C.O.'s will follow suite 
and then they make the privates smarten 
up. You should see some of the Cana- 
dians and Australians going about Lon- 
don these days. They are richer than our 



70 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

own home soldiers and can afford to buy 
their own footwear and gaiters; in their 
possession they are kept shining and 
bright. 

One seldom sees an untidy officer. I 
met one once and thought him an outsider, 
but with many others I was mistaken. He 
proved himself a wonderful hero. His 
name was Slug and this is his story as it 
came to me : 

I was asked to lunch by an old Cam- 
bridge friend of mine, an Infantry officer 
in one of the smartest of our regiments. 
During seven months this regiment had 
been lucky in getting very decent fellows 
out from England as reinforcements, but 
just at this time an officer arrived whose 
appearance was hardly attractive. I 
turned up for lunch at about one o'clock 
and found the officers of my friend's Com- 
pany billeted in what was left of an old 
Inn. I was introduced to the new arrival. 
He seemed just a little bit unhappy, and at 



ASPECTS OF DISCIPLINE 71 

first I thought that his brother officers 
might have paid him a little more atten- 
tion. He sat on my left at the old round 
table. I felt sorry for him and endeavored 
to commence a conversation, but finally 
gave it up as hopeless. He sat there hud- 
dled up at the table, shoulders bent and 
his chin almost touching the board. Judg- 
ing by his chin his razor must have been 
very blunt. His tunic looked dirty and 
his puttees were untidily wound. There 
was nothing about him that was attrac- 
tive. The next day I saw him drilling his 
men near our battery position. Having 
been well drilled by Slug's predecessor the 
men were able to do the drill quite well, 
although it must have been diffi,cult with 
a chap like Slug in command. There 
seemed not the slightest doubt of Slug's 
being quite a bad officer. 

About three months after I met him. 
Slug, with the two other officers of his 
Com^pany, was holding three fortified posts 



72 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

at Loos. These fortified posts were truly 
terrible. Every attempt made to build 
up and strengthen them, the Germans 
foiled. It was winter. During the 
forty-eight hours that Slug and his com- 
panions occupied them there was abso- 
lutely no shelter at all. Every night a 
collection of corpses would have to be 
buried in the shell holes around. About 
four o'clock in the afternoon Slug was 
holding the centre post, the Germans com- 
menced to throw what are called *'rum 
jars'' at Slug and his two companiojis 
holding the posts on each side of him. A 
^^rum jar" is a large trench mortar shell. 
It comes hurtling ungracefully through 
the air, and upon arrival at its destination 
makes a fearful mess. They fired these 
things for about three quarters of an hour, 
and then after a ten-minute bombardment 
with 3-inch field guns, they attacked. The 
posts on either side of Slug were promptly 
captured and their occupants taken pris- 



ASPECTS OF DISCIPLINE 73 

oners — ^he, himself, to the astonishment 
of his men and the Colonel who could see 
the whole thing from a long distance, 
fought like a little tiger. He had been 
buried by one of the rum jars, but his men 
had managed to dig him out, and when the 
Germans came on he seized a rifle and 
when they came to close quarters he used 
the bayonet with wonderful effect. They 
withdrew surprised and then gave the post 
another burst of rum jars and 3-inch shell. 
At this time we in the artillery had re- 
ceived Slug's S.O.S. and were helping 
him. The Germans came on in large num- 
bers, but Slug became almost hysterical 
and fought like a wildcat. His men were 
inspired by the sight and fought just as 
well. Finally the Germans withdrew. 
Slug fainted, was carried down to the 
Colonel at the battalion headquarters. The 
Colonel sent him to England — ^the King 
gave him a Victoria Cross. There was 
not the slightest doubt that Slug was a 



74 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

hero. There was also not the slightest 
doubt that Slug was not a very good 
officer. 

Fellows sometimes get awfully careless. 
To be the opposite is an important aspect 
of discipline. I remember once being in 
an observation post and an officer came in 
to see me with a nasty cut in his arm. It 
w^as nothing very special and it only meant 
binding up the wound with a first field 
dressing. There was no need for him to 
go to the doctor about it, but still he was 
very lucky not to have been killed. It was 
all due to two Canadians who, strolling 
along the trench, were unable to resist the 
temptation of getting some very fine pears 
from a tree which grew out of the parapet. 
The trenches at this particular part of the 
line wound through an orchard. Upon 
this particular day we were preparing for 
an attack, and in a systematic manner 
were very heavily bombarding the Germ_an 
front and support trenches. It seemed 



ASPECTS OF DISCIPLINE 75 

obvious to these two Canadians that if the 
Grermans were getting hell in the form of 
high explosive shells they would neglect 
any sniping; the two hungry fellows 
climbed up the tree and helped themselves 
to the delicious pears. Nothing happened 
to them. Unfortunately a German officer 
on observation duty had seen the perform- 
ance and promjptly gave orders to his guns 
to fire. They did not succeed in getting 
any rounds off while the Canadians were 
up the tree, but my friend happened to 
be passing at the moment when the shells 
did arrive, and was lucky to escape with a 
little flesh wound in his arm. People are 
always doing things like that. I suppose 
they do not think. 

Men who spend their nights and part 
of their days a little behind the lines often 
come up and expose themselves. I sup- 
pose they don't realize that the spot where 
they have exposed themselves often gets 
shelled after they have gone. I had a 



76 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

colonel once, a fine chap, who was always 
very careful not to do this sort of thing, 
but one day at Ypres he by accident al- 
lowed the Germans to see him. All seemed 
well and he hoped that nothing would come 
of it. He stayed for a time with the young 
officer in the observation post to share the 
danger, but as nothing happened he 
started for home. After having walked 
about half a mile he turned around and saw 
the house being bombarded. Exposing 
himself to shell fire, he returned and made 
due apologies to those whom he had endan- 
gered. This colonel of ours had a wonder- 
ful code of honor — I guess most officers 
would do the same thing if they thought it 
would do any good. 

Though he never commanded my bri- 
gade we were attached to his command 
for a time at Ypres, and one day near that 
town I met him, beautifully turned out. 
We stopped to chat and he said, "D'you 
know, I love Ypres — life is so interesting 



ASPECTS OF DISCIPLINE 77 

here — always something happening. ' ' And 
he meant every word of it. 

Absence of equipment is another feature 
that may make the training period unin- 
teresting and difficult, and in the face of 
which discipline of mind will be necessary 
if you desire, as you must desire, to retain 
your proper viewpoint. 

There may be but few good rifles, some 
of them will be old fashioned, entrench- 
ing tools may not arrive. Your uniform 
will get worn out, and it may be difficult to 
get it renewed. Boots will also wear out, 
and you may have to go about with worn- 
out ones. In barracks or at your post, you 
will be able to have possibly two sets of 
clothing and you will accmnulate more. 
Life in this respect will become normal. 
However, just before you embark, it is 
presumed you will have to get rid of your 
extras, and will be put on a war footing. 
You will have but one coat, one pair of 



78 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

trousers, an extra pair of under pants, and 
an extra vest. It may happen that on a 
route march or hike, you will all get wet, 
soaked to the skin, through not taking 
your waterproof with you. This most fre- 
quently ha]3pens to an inexperienced sol- 
dier. Arrangements for drying are quite 
good at the front outside the trenches, but 
will be perhaps imperfect in the training 
camp. Expect this. Finally you will al- 
ways march with complete equipment on 
your back or in front of your saddle if 
you are a mounted soldier, and ihe danger 
of getting wet will be lessened. 

On the transport conditions will be quite 
different from an ordinary voyage on a 
first-class liner. There will be parades as 
usual and little of military discipline will 
be slackened. If you are a mounted sol- 
dier, there will be horses to feed, and at- 
tended to. This will be particularly un- 
pleasant in bad weather, as for their safety 
and through lack of space, they will be 



ASPECTS OF DISCIPLINE 79 

very crowded, below decks most of them. 
They get a bit ill, poor devils. You may 
be in a similar state yourself, but the 
horses have got to be fed and well fed. 
Prepare for this. On decks at night in 
the danger zone, talking will be discour- 
aged, and the striking of matches for- 
bidden firmly. This will obviously be 
for the safety of all — as are most army 
regulations. 



CHAPTER V 
BEHIND THE FIRING LINE 

YouK first impression of Prance may be 
a little bit disappointing. You will pos- 
sibly arrive at an early hour in the morn- 
ing, and if you have been clever you will 
have saved a few biscuits from the day be- 
fore 's rations, because breakfast will be 
noticeable by its absence. Possibly, how- 
ever, an arrangement will have been made 
whereby food is served out before landing. 

The first thing you will hear is that you 
are going to a rest camp. Why it is called 
a rest camp no one has ever been able to 
discover. It is really a concentration 
camp, allowing your staff officers to ar- 
range your transportation up to the front. 
It gives them a breathing space. The rest 
camp is by no means restful. They try to 
keep it tidy and clean, and it will be part 

80 



BEHIND THE FIRING LINE 81 

of your duty during your short stay liere 
to do a good deal of the tidying and clean- 
ing. However, you may get some leave 
and will be able to have a look at the 
French port. Thousands of children will 
gather round you as you go along the road 
and ask you for souvenirs. It is not ad- 
visable to give them many of your tunic 
buttons. 

When the British Army first went to 
France, after a time they had hardly any 
buttons or hat badges at all. They had 
given them to the French children and 
girls. Everybody will be very polite to 
you, and goodwill and welcome will be 
written on the faces of all the inhabitants. 
They now understand quite a lot of Eng- 
lish, although it is a rather curious form, 
the Tommies having given them certain 
words. They in return have given the 
Tommies a few, and so for ordinary inter- 
course a strange mixture is used. In the 
port it will all be new to you and conse- 

6 



82 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

quently interesting. You will spend a lot 
of money and have a thoroughly good time. 
Beware of some of the women that you 
may find in the hotels. They may be all 
right, but at any rate, you are inexperi- 
enced and they are not. They understand 
the soldier mind pretty well; you have 
had a fairly bad time on the transport, and 
are in just a fine state to get yourself into 
a pretty mess. 

Before leaving the rest camp it is a good 
idea to find out what time you have got to 
be back ; get back at the right time or you 
will find yourself in the guard room, and 
the least that can happen to you will be to 
have your leave stopped while at the rest 
camp. You are now at the front really, 
and not so very far from the enemy. Dis- 
cipline will tighten. 

In a day or so the good news will arrive, 
and it will be good news to you, that you 
are going to entrain the next day. Pre- 
pare for an unpleasant shock. You will 




AN AMERICAN TAR TREATED BY FRENCH WIDOWS 

Everj^hing possible will be done by the people of France to make you 
happy 



BEHIND THE FIRING LINE 83 

not go in a decent day coach. You, with 
perhaps twenty others, will sit in the floor 
of a freight wagon. The French have not 
enough coaches to carry you comfortably. 
On the outside of the coach is written in 
French ^^ eight horses," ^^ sixteen men." 
This may worry you a little, but as you 

have considerablv more brains than a 

«/ 

horse you will endeavor to get something 
to sit on, perhaps some straw. 

When Kitchener's Army first went to 
France, they were very much the same 
type of men that go to make up an Ameri- 
can army. They came from every class of 
life. It was with astonishment and sur- 
prise that they found themselves riding 
in the same sort of coaches that took their 
horses. Please try to take this as cheer- 
fully as possible. See that your water 
bottle is filled, although this may be un- 
necessary, for at regular stops on the jour- 
ney the French will supply you with much 
good coffee, well doped with cognac. This 



84 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

will tend to cheer you considerably. The 
journey up to the front is quite a short 
one, but do not expect to get there within 
twelve hours. I remember censoring a 
letter written by one of my men to his 
family at home, describing the journey. 
He said that the train had been going 
about an hour when it stopped ; a cow was 
discovered in front of the engine. It was 
driven off and the train proceeded. The 
journey then continued for another two 
hours and the train once more stopped, 
it was the same cow. Many of the men 
enjoyed the journey. There were long 
stops and they got off the train and looked 
about a little. It was like English cara- 
vanning. Food was very plentiful, and 
the excitement of at least reaching the goal 
of all their hopes, helped to keep them up. 
Certain base feUows threw their friends' 
hats out of the train. Generally it was 
quite possible to rescue them, but not al- 
ways, and so in the morning when the of- 



BEHIND THE FIRING LINE 85 

fleers were in anything but a cheerful tem- 
per, being hungry and unhappy, these hat- 
less gentry got into serious trouble. 

Having reached the rail head for troops, 
you will be billeted in certain villages. 
Your Company or Battery will occupy a 
village of its own. There will probably be 
two or three farm houses. Each platoon 
will probably have a farm house of its 
own. At this stage, feel in your knapsack 
and see if you have your tin of insect pow- 
der. It will be needed. For three years 
those barns have been occupied by relay 
after relay of soldiers, all of whom have 
not carried insect powder. However, the 
hay or straw will be soft and comfortable. 
The place is a little dark, but as a bivouac 
for soldiers not at all bad. It is consider- 
ably better than the best dugout in the 
trenches and much safer. 

A French farm house is a curious mass 
of buildings. It consists chiefly of what 
we call a middan in Scotland. The mid- 



86 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

dan is a large concrete well about thirty 
feet long and eighteen feet wide. At one 
end it is about six feet deep, but gradu- 
ally slopes up to the ordinary level of the 
farm yard at the other end. It is sur- 
rounded by a narrow path about five feet 
wide, and the living rooms of the farm, 
the stables, cow byres, and barn form a 
court. Now comes the depressing infor- 
mation, and thank God you have been in- 
oculated — all the waste from all the 
places I have mentioned, including the 
cow byres, goes into the well, and only 
when it is full, the process is a long one, is 
the lot carted away and put in the fields. 
Even the drawing room windows, if there 
is a dramng room, look into this. The 
result is too unpleasant to describe, espe- 
cially in the summer, as then the smell is 
horrible. Millions of flies are to be found 
here. Hens and pigs spend a good deal 
of their happy existence on this rubbish. 
Just about five feet from the heap is the 



BEHIND THE FIRING LINE 87 

well where the water supplying the house 
is drawn, and I hope it is quite unneces- 
sary to warn you against drinking a single 
drop of it. If you are mad you will do 
so. A water cart which filters the water 
for your consumption will go along with 
your Company. It tastes and smells like 
a corpse, but it is harmless. The French 
themselves, for the most part, drink wine 
of a light nature rather than water. 

Madame, the farmer's wife, will always 
welcome you into her large living room. 
She will serve you very good coffee at a 
charge of two cents a cup, though per- 
haps she may regard you as millionaires 
and charge you more. She will also sell 
for a small sum eggs and bacon and very 
good brown bread which she has made 
herself. You will all spend your even- 
ings in the farm house living room, and 
practise the French that you have learned 
from the ladies near your barracks in 
America. You will feel very much encour- 



88 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

aged, for Madame has become used by now 
to English-speaking soldiers, and although 
she may not be able to speak English her- 
self, she will be able to follow you pretty 
well. She is very large and good-natured 
and not very clean. She invariably has a 
daughter who is called Marie Louise or 
Gabrielle. Marie Louise will speak Eng- 
lish quite well, although it will be the 
English of the British Tommy. So if per- 
chance she uses some rather awkward 
phrases in quite a mild voice, do not be 
surprised. Don't act on it. In the barn 
you will be very much crowded, perhaps, 
and it may be a little bit uncomfortable, 
but the day will come when the oppor- 
tunity of sleeping in a barn will be looked 
upon as a great luxury. 

It is well to know a little about the 
French and Belgian inhabitants of the 
actual battlefield. Thousands of them 
live quite happily in constant danger. 
When foreign friendly troops first arrived 



BEHIND THE FIRING LINE 89 

the people were very hospitable and could 
not do too much for the soldiers who had 
come to help France in her hour of need. 
They are still very polite, but naturally 
not quite so hospitable. We were some- 
times very thoughtless, and there were 
men who seem to enjoy spoiling a good 
thing. In any case, the people are not 
very rich and could not afford to continue 
giving food and drink away. 

Close up to the line the old farmer found 
it dangerous to continue his ordinary farm 
work, and in addition his son or able- 
bodied helper was called to the army. He 
might have starved, but found that money 
could be made by selling certain farm pro- 
duce and drinks to the soldiers, and there- 
fore, you will be able to buy eggs, bread, 
coffee, light beer, and milk. 

Now it is noticed by some men that the 
profits in the farm house seem very large, 
and they are. It is perfectly fair business, 
however, and incidentally no matter how 



90 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

rich you arc, don't spoil this farmer mer- 
chant by refusing change. His profits are 
enormous as it is, and you will make him 
overcharge other troops not quite so rich. 
However, I know several poor women of 
Prance who just don't bother, and take 
w^hatever price is offered them. Some- 
times if a man is hard up she won't take 
anything, and she is generally one of the 
very poor. I know this to be true. 

About ten miles or more behind the lines 
where you may be in reserve, the people 
upon whom you are billeted may be a little 
unpleasant. If they are, one cannot blame 
them. They have not perhaps experienced 
the full horror of the situation for the 
civilians, and are only conscious that dur- 
ing a period of nearly three years their 
stock of knives, forks and spoons has 
been pinched by a long succession of of- 
ficers' servants and others. Their best 
pastures have been ruined by the tramp 
of artillery and cavalry horses. Of course, 



o > 

P H 




BEHIND THE FIRING LINE 91 

they ought to realize that we are unable to 
help this last offence, but some of them 
fail to. An officer's servant may borrow 
a spoon or a fork and perhaps forget to 
return it. After a year or two Madame 
has hardly any left, and she therefore re- 
fuses to let a single thing out of her hand, 
and the man forgetting that he is not the 
only soldier in the world thinks she is very 
mean. Some farm people of a business- 
like frame of mind show care, and by good 
shop keeping are able to put such losses 
down to wear and tear. Some with sons 
at the front, and among these are many 
fine old ladies, love the soldiers, and are 
willing to give them anything. The at- 
titudes are a bit varied, but I do not think 
that either English or American people 
would undergo with patience that which 
has been the lot of these French people. 
Poor devils, they have an awful time of it ! 
I have seen a bunch of pale-faced women 
rushing away from a house beating their 



92 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

breasts and weeping, while their homes 
are being shelled to bits. I saw a woman 
standing one night by the side of what had 
been her house. It was practically burnt 
to the ground. Two dead cows were in 
the cow-house, and amidst the few small 
flames that every now and again were dart- 
ing up, her husband with a silly grin was 
catching the few hens that were left. It 
was raining hard, and the woman told me 
that this was the third house from which 
she had been shelled. Beside her was a 
tall fellow with the hat badge of the Rifle 
Brigade. He was bad at French and could 
only repeat, ^^Bon courage, Madame." 
She was replying, ^^Oui M'sieur." He 
gave her a gold piece, and I gave her what 
I thought a five-franc bill. To my sorrow 
when I got home I discovered it was a 
twenty-five franc bill. I am not sorry 
now, but I was hard up at the time. She 
waited there in the rain while the chickens 
shrieked as her husband caught them, and 



BEHIND THE FIRING LINE 93 

a few Tommies searched for shell fuzes. 
As I left she said, " The war, it is very 
sad for the soldiers, but it is also very sad 
for the civilians." I guess it is. 

I caught a corporal once in the act of 
removing vital bricks from a house that 
had been shelled, but was in fairly good 
repair. He wanted the bricks for his 
horses to stand on during the winter. I 
suggested that if the war ended suddenly 
the people returning would have nowhere 
to live. He replied, ''Well, let 'em live in 
'Biwyacks' like we does." Then he told 
me a fearful tale about the extortions of 
the French farmer near his wagon line. 
He just did not understand. 



CHAPTER VI 

TOUR ENGLISH COUSINS 

It is possible that some of you will land 
in England and therefore a few remarks 
about my country may be of use to you. 
The climate is rather unique and, though 
it never gets as cold or as hot as in Amer- 
ica, it is far from ideal — it is rather of 
the sort concerning which no one becomes 
enthusiastic, but to which all become ac- 
customed. 

Liverpool may be your landing place. 
The captain of your ship won't even know 
until he is quite close. Everything vriU 
depend upon the situation. If you should 
arrive there you may not be very favor- 
ably impressed. The Mersey doubtless a 
few centuries ago was a pretty stream or 
small river, but now it looks like a big 
mud pond. New York has its wonderful 
sky line, and having much natural beauty 

94 



YOUR ENGLISH COUSINS 95 

coTild be nothing else but beautiful, wHle 
Liverpool, though it is now a wonderful 
commercial port, had to be made. You 
will see that the town does not seem to 
possess the beauties of American cities. 
The atmosphere is often very heavy, and 
the smut from factory chimneys lands on 
the buildings and makes them very black. 
However, you will not get loose at Liver- 
pool, but will probably entrain at once, 
and will find yourself passing through the 
English country. It is very pretty and 
tidy looking. The troop train will be 
pretty full. If it is winter the first thing 
you will be conscious of is that it is very 
cold ; although it is not freezing. The train 
may not be heated at all, and instead of 
being in an ordinary day coach where you 
can walk up and down you will be in a 
little compartment with a door at each 
end opening to the outside of the train. 
The seat is well padded right up the back, 
generally in red carpet. Eight of you will 



96 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

be together. You will dislike it slightly 
at first. The train may go fast; it may 
crawl; but whatever it does you will get 
plenty of food on the journey. You will 
find the people very glad to see you, and 
the people from every village you pass 
through will cheer you wildly. You will 
see about the country and on the platforms 
many British soldiers from young Lieu- 
tenants up to Generals. They will be in- 
terested in you. If you see on one of the 
platforms a young ofiicer wearing a mon- 
ocle, very smartly turned out, and looking 
rather pleased with himself, the fact that 
on the stage in America you have seen a 
similar fellow, does not pardon your call- 
ing him ^ ■ Algy." Nothing will happen to 
you for doing it, because you will be able 
to dart back among the others. On the 
other hand, it will have the eflect of mak- 
ing the said ofiicer regard you as a bunch 
of rough necks, and his opinion of you and 
your army will be prejudiced. Later, 



YOUR ENGLISH COUSINS 97 

when you have been to the front and seen 
a similar officer looking precisely the 
same, just as well turned out, even with 
the monocle, standing in precisely the same 
way in the midst of great danger and 
heartening his men in a well-bred voice, 
your ideas will change. 

I met a New Zealander in a hospital 
once who had been driven mad while out 
on a fearful patrol after the Battle of Loos. 
During this patrol, when he was creeping 
along quite close to the Germans he found 
two Guard Officers, both wearing monocles 
— ^with their corporals they were all that 
was left of their platoons. Standing in a 
big shell crater, talking in a perfectly 
modulated tone, of the sort that you here 
call an '^English accent,'' they were dis- 
cussing the hunting of the year before. 
My friend got down with them and they 
offered him sardines. New Zealanders are 
something like Americans, and this one 
had never met anyone quite like these of- 
7 



98 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

ficers — except on the stage in New Zealand 
where what is called the *' English 
Johnny'' is a familiar and amusing char- 
acter. They were perfectly calm, although 
knowing their danger. My friend had to 
continue his patrol, but he later heard that 
a few hours after the incident the officers 
were both killed. Perhaps such British 
officers may appear to you to be fops and 
almost effeminate, but I desire to remark 
that you will find them very brave men. 

Our accent over there is quite different 
from yours, though before the Revolution 
we all spoke alike. Language changes a 
great deal in the course of centuries. 
Where education is similar the change will 
be uniform; where it is different it will 
not be uniform. 

As our army is now a conscripted one, 
you will find a plain British Tommy with 
what will seem to you an affected way of 
speaking. Of course, he may be affected. 
Don't be surprised at this. Be amused if 
you like, but don't decide that because he 



YOUR ENGLISH COUSINS 99 

talks like one of your mimicking actors 
lie is a fool. He may be often, but be is 
not always an ass. You will, of course, 
■understand in time. 

Before tbe war we Britisb were per- 
haps a little narrow in our ideas. We 
were not conscious of being so, else we 
might have changed. Since the war there 
has been a large influx of oversea troops 
who came from lands just as free, just as 
wonderful as yours. They taught us much 
and we have taught them a little, with 
the result that we are nearly merged into 
a hybrid sort of people, and have given 
up being surprised at anything. We will 
be glad if at first you don't form fixed 
opinions. 

You will find the women of England 
charming and sympathetic, but it will take 
you a long time to understand the men. 
They are very conservative and do not 
make friends very quickly; but when 
you've passed the outer wall, it will be 
simple. 



100 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

It is true, the average Englishman does 
not understand America and Americans, 
but one good thing about this war will be 
our learning to appreciate you Americans 
at youi' real value. You'll think us fear- 
fully old fashioned and behind the times. 
Perhaps we are, but be not too sure; at 
any rate, do not decide at once. 

I am going to give you another tip : do 
not tell an Englishman that George Wash- 
ington was an American. He thinks in a 
vague sort of way that George Washing- 
ton was an ally of his ancestors while they 
were fighting for freedom from the rem- 
nants of absolutism left in the hands of 
poor old George III. I think he is right. 
And just another tip — Englishmen are 
very fond of King George V, although 
they say little about it. If you suggest 
that a monarchy seems a funny sort of 
rule for modern people to live under, they 
won't know quite what to say, but you 
may be sure that they will not be gratified. 



CHAPTER VII 
THE BRITISH TOMMY 

A GREAT deal has been written about the 
British Tommy; perhaps not so much in 
America as in England, where we regard 
him as very much a hero. 

Incidentally, during times of peace the 
soldier was to a large extent ignored. The 
officer, of course, had a certain social 
status, but the actual private in the army 
was looked upon as almost an inferior sort 
of being. In peace time, the British en- 
listed man often came from the poorer 
classes. However, he was caught young 
and an excellent process of development 
commenced upon both his body and mind. 
The finished article was a fine specimen 
of humanity — still, however, very little at- 
tention was paid to the average private 
during the days of peace. The moment 

101 



102 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

war broke out all this was changed, and 
people now look upon the soldier as an 
ideal hero. If one stops to think, it is 
perhaps a little bit comical. His virtues 
become magnified; his faults are looked 
upon with a kindly eye. People cheer him 
in the streets and everybody commences 
to burn incense to this national idol. His 
officers, however, have appreciated him 
during the whole time of his service, and 
they know what sort of a chap he really 
is. You will meet the British Tommy by 
the score in both England and France. 
Perhaps, it is possible to give you a slight 
insight into his character. 

It is a common fallacy in America that 
a rigid kind of feudal system exists in 
England — that the man who earns his liv- 
ing is ground down by the man who has a 
long list of ancestors behind him. In other 
words, a great mass of British people are 
kept in subjection by the aristocracy. 
You will think this, and nothing that is 



THE BRITISH TOMMY 103 

said will prevent you from continuing to 
think so. Of course, you are wrong. No- 
body in Great Britain, no matter how 
humble, is ground down by anyone else 
— of course, certain worms will crawl 
along the ground. Great Britain is the 
birthplace of rule by the people, for the 
people. At times we have had Kings who 
for a season have succeeded in ruling with- 
out the support of Parliament ; but sooner 
or later they have had to come down. Our 
history for six hundred years has been a 
struggle between Autocracy and Democ- 
racy. Autocracy has not always won. At 
the moment Democracy is well on top. 
Now, you will notice that the English sol- 
diers are very respectful towards their 
officers. This is not because they are 
frightened or that they fear punishment. 
It is because respect is born in them, and 
they know their officers. 

You may meet quite a number of British 
soldiers at different times, and you will 



104 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FEONT 

find them entirely different from your own 
comrades. Still, they will listen with the 
greatest of interest to all you have to say 
about America. They will be thrilled, and 
will envy you when they hear that your 
pay is three times as great as their own. 
When you pass remarks about their being 
old fashioned and behind the times ; when 
you complain about the discomforts of 
travel in Europe ; and when you tell them 
how very much superior everything in 
America is to that in Europe, they will 
still be interested. But don't mistake this 
for simpleness! You will never hear a 
British Tommy say one good word for 
England or the English. He just doesn't 
do it because he has never had to. 

He has not had the same chance for ex- 
pansion that you have had ; he has earned 
much less money than you have; he has 
never been able to travel to the same ex- 
tent ; his food, all his life, has been of the 
simplest. Consequently, you will find him 




GUOD-llEAKTED, IIARD-FlGilTlXG TOMMIES 

Though the sun is shining, there is plenty of water in the trench to make for 

discomfort 



THE BRITISH TOMMY 105 

very humble. He growls a great deal 
about things. Apparently nothing seems 
to suit him — but you will only find this 
coming out while things are going easily 
and comfortably. When things are going 
wrong and he is in extreme discomfort, 
no more cheerful fellow will be met in the 
wide, wide world. He is devoted to his of- 
ficers, but he won 't tell you this. You may 
irritate him a little when in your zeal for 
America you are giving thanks to God too 
intensively. You know the average Eng- 
lishman knows as much about America and 
Americans as he knows about Timbuctoo 
and the natives thereof. 

In America advertisement is developed 
a great deal more than it is in Europe. If 
you have goods here you advertise inten- 
sively. We people in England don't under- 
stand this a little bit and we are apt, un- 
fortunately, to judge you wrongly. How- 
ever, this must change ; Englishmen who 
have lived in America any time at all know 



106 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

the great qualities of kindliness, charity, 
manliness and decency that are so marked 
in the American character. Englishmen 
find out to their astonishment that one of 
the characteristics of the average Ameri- 
can is humility and a desire to learn. How- 
ever, when you have been with us in Eng- 
land for a little time, we will learn. Will 
you please give us a chance ? 



CHAPTER VIII 
TEENCH LIFE 

When Marshal Joffre out-manoeuvred 
the Germans, the result being the victory 
of the Marne, they commenced to retreat. 
At first it was almost a rout, but gradu- 
ally it became less precipitate and the 
enemy choosing the best country formed 
long lines of trenches of unique design. 
They zigzagged in a curious manner and 
were so cleverly constructed that a man 
entering them found himself in a regular 
maze. They also developed to an enor- 
mous extent the use of barbed wire, with 
the result that the French and British 
found it impossible to break through, and 
finally upon the coming of winter were 
compelled to build trenches of similar de- 
sign. The trenches were difficult to take, 
but the most formidable thing about them 
was the barbed wire entanglements. 

107 



108 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

If you arm yourself with a couple of 
good Colt guns, and get in a pretty deep 
hole, having surrounded yourself with 
many square yards of barbed wire ; if you 
have fixed stakes in the ground and made 
a regular spider web of the place by draw- 
ing wire tightly and then leaving a lot of 
it loose, ten men amied with similar 
weapons would never get you. In their 
efforts they would be delayed by the wire 
to such an extent that you could kill them 
one by one. 

After a time we found a method whereby 
we could cut the visible wire, and this made 
the capturing of the first system of 
trenches comparatively easy. But wire 
can be cleverly hidden in the grass or so 
placed that it can be immediately unrolled 
at important points such as roads, etc. 
Of course, it is impossible to get through 
it until it is cut, and as the enemy has hid- 
den machine guns trained upon the par- 
ticular spots you can well imagine that no 



TRENCH LIFE 109 

matter how brave a man is lie will have a 
horrible job of it. This may explain the 
stagnation that exists, as you must realize 
that the Germans found the same difficulty 
as did we. 

I suppose many of you are wondering 
how you will feel when you first get into 
the trenches. I am certain that you are 
looking forward to it with pleasurable ex- 
citement. There is plenty of excitement, 
certainly. 

I am going to give you an impression of 
the little ordinary things that struck me 
when I first got into a communication 
trench and finally reached the fire trench. 

The actual two main lines of trenches 
are generally in the open, although at parts 
of the line they run through woods. Most 
of the trenches of my, experience have been 
fairly well exposed to one another. 

Communication has to be maintained 
under cover by day and night. This is 
done by means of the conmiunication 



no now TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

trench. Men do walk overland by night 
and sometimes by day during the winter. 
The mud is often very thick and deep in 
the communication trench, and if you are 
feeling very much alive the possibility of 
getting knocked out seems very slight. 
One might advise you always to stick to the 
communication trench, but you won't. 
However, be fairly careful. A bullet comes 
very swiftly and kills you in less than a 
second. People through carelessness or 
inexperience run a lot of risks. When I 
first got to the front the idea of being fired 
at had a certain amount of interest about 
it that was pleasurable. The major one 
day took me down to an observation post. 
It was a fine day and we ignored the com- 
munication trench. The O.P. was close 
up to the front line just behind the 
trenches. It was called the Brasserie, a 
large brewery which had received many 
thousands of shells, but being of such 
flimsy construction most of them refused 



TEENCH LIFE 111 

to detonate in it and passed on. However, 
it was pretty well knocked about, and with 
difficulty a few officers could perch in the 
roof and observe. It has since succumbed 
to the efforts of the Germans and is now 
but a heap of ruins. 

The major knew a way down to the O.P. 
whereby one could follow certain direc- 
tions and remain out of sight. We got 
there all right. The thing seemed easy. 
If a bullet came anywhere near us, duck 
would go the major's head. I thought 
him unnecessarily nervous at the time. 
IVe changed my mind since. We spent 
an interesting period at the post and 
hardly heard a rifle shot, although we were 
just fifty yards behind the front trench. 
The whole thing was simple, interesting, 
and very enjoyable; and a contempt for 
the Germans took possession of my mind. 
We went back and the next day I was 
ordered to take the junior subaltern down 
to the Brasserie. 



112 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

We left the road and started off across 
country. In a vague way I remembered 
the major's course and carelessly followed. 
On we went, talking gaily about nothing in 
particular, both pleased to be at the front. 
Half way down I noticed that an old 
Tommy was walking behind us carrying 
something on his back. We had got two- 
thirds of the way down when a hissing 
sound swept past my left ear. A second 
passed and another bullet just missed my 
friend's right ear. We fell down on our 
faces; so did the Tommy, muttering '^the 
Barskets," only he did not say ^^Bars- 
kets." We crept into the communication 
trench, promptly followed by the Tommy. 
You see he had seen two officers walking 
down what he regarded as a new and pleas- 
ant way and obviously a safe one ; he fol- 
lowed and nearly got stung in consequence. 
I have been a little more careful since. 

One day at a quiet part of the line I had 
been observing from the front line trench. 



\ 



TRENCH LIFE 113 

A subtle minded young officer had made 
use of a hole in a tree, a willow I think, 
and had fixed a fine little O.P. for himself 
in the bosom of the tree. I spent a long 
time observing there during his absence. 
There was room only for one. The trenches 
were a good way apart, about four hun- 
dred yards. The owner of the tree arrived, 
but suggested that the trenches were so 
far apart that it would be quite safe to 
observe from the trench with my head 
above the parapet; it really was fairly 
safe, too, and I could see better. I ar- 
ranged some sandbags carefully. The 
whole thing was quite imnecessary; re- 
quired no courage, only a display of in- 
experience and f oolhardiness. At dinner 
that night I modestly boasted a little about 
this stunt. The major might have sat on 
me, but being clever, seized the chance to 
deliver a lecture on f oolhardiness. 

He said that the primary duty of a sol- 
dier was to fight for his country, not to 
die for it. There was nothing heroic about 

8 



114 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

a man who exposed himself unnecessarily. 
He was merely a fool. A dead soldier was 
useless and was buried in the ground, and 
finished with, so far as his country was con- 
cerned. He had to be replaced. Months 
and much worry had been spent in his 
training and then he foolishly threw his 
life away, causing worry and trouble all 
around. His family doubtless regarded 
him as a hero, and his name appeared on 
the local roll of honor. If he had been 
careless he was not a hero by any means. 
My action had been merely a display of 
carelessness. The major pointed out that 
the time came only too often when an of- 
ficer or a man had to expose himself for 
some specific purpose, and then it had to 
be done. If he died in the effort it was 
unfortunate, but it was not his fault. In 
the same way that many martyrs in his- 
tory were merely tactless, so many sol- 
diers lauded to the skies as heroes have 
just been careless. 



TRENCH LIFE 115 

Ton see the ordinariness of warfare 
when a whole nation is in arms causes 
people to take quite a cool view of things. 
You know, you may be a hero in the eyes 
of the newspapers, and in the eyes of your 
family, but you will never be a hero in the 
eyes of your comrades, or very seldom. 
At the front there is very little time to 
watch heroic stimts. 

The ideal soldier is the chap who each 
day does his very best to help things along, 
avoids getting himself disliked by his 
N.C.O.'s and officers; avoids being taken 
up to office as much as possible, and also, 
imless he is particularly skilful, curbs him- 
self from making excuses when caught. 

I have branched from my first impres- 
sions of the trenches, but the digression is 
particularly appropriate, as it is about the 
trenches that carelessness plays most 
havoc. 

A communication trench, as the name 
implies, exists to maintain communication 



116 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

with the front line. Running at right 
angles, or nearly so, to the fire trench it is 
in danger of being enfiladed, that is, get- 
ting swept with shrapnel by a gun point- 
ing straight down its length. You see, it 
runs straight at the Germans. A com- 
munication trench makes use of every 
scrap of cover. It winds down hedges, 
though this is difficult, because a hedge in- 
variably in Northern France and Flanders 
suggests a ditch for carrying off water. 
It will attack houses and ruins and make 
use of everything to hide itself from sight. 
Where it cannot hide itself it makes at 
regular intervals a quick turn to the right, 
then a quick turn to the left, another quick 
turn to the left, and then goes on its jour- 
ney. It does this at regular intervals. It 
has made a sort of square which protects 
the preceding bit of trench from being 
enfiladed. 

Sometimes there are dizzies. You have 
seen a stream mth an island in its middle 



TRENCH LIFE 117 

wider than the stream itself. Now a com- 
munication trench sometimes widens it- 
self out or bulges to three times its own 
width; a sort of sugar loaf is formed in 
the middle of the bulge, which is strength- 
ened and built up to a diameter of about 
twelve feet. The communication trench 
runs around each side and meets, forming a 
single trench again. Our Tommies call 
these things ^^ dizzies" for some reason or 
other. Perhaps they get dizzy, having to 
go round them so much. However, they 
are just called dizzies. A fellow once 
asked a Tommy, a captain told me the 
story, why they gave them this name, and 
he replied : ^' Well, Sir, yer git a 'un in the 
trench, and when yer carn't git 'im yer 
run 'im rawnd and rawnd until he gits 
dizzy — ^then yer settle 'im." A similar 
method of procedure is said to be applied 
to the killing of a small owl in New Zea- 
land, a very inquisitive bird. He is fairly 
tame and from a tree will follow your 



118 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

movements carefully. His head seems to 
go round like the hub of a wheel. The 
thing to do is to go round and round him 
until his head screws off. The dizzy story 
and the killing of the owl are equally true. 
If you first go down a communication 
trench in the summer you will find it quite 
a pleasant walk. The ^^ dizzies/' if there 
are ^^ dizzies/' appear quite frequently, 
and in any case there are safe places on 
the way. If you are going to be shelled 
you can generally find some hole to get 
into. Incidentally this is a very undigni- 
fied kind of war. In moments of stress all 
the dignity leaves you even if you are a 
Brigadier General. Unless your duty is 
important, you'll get into the nearest hole 
and stay there until the danger is past. 
We've given up a great deal of our old 
romantic ideas, you know, but we've 
gained a lot of common sense — so keep 
your eyes on the dizzies if there is 
any chance of being shelled, and crouch 
well up to the leeward side when you hear 



TRENCH LIFE 119 

a bang and a hissing sound coming at you. 
A bit may get you on the back, of course, 
if it is a good shot. This is another proof 
of the lack of dignity in this war. Years 
ago if a man was wounded in the back it 
was a sign that, to put it politely, he was 
making a strategic retreat. Nowadays a 
high explosive shell may fall behind you 
even if you are advancing up a communi- 
cation trench. It bursts in every direc- 
tion, so a bit may get you. 

A communication trench always starts 
off well. This is owing to the fact that 
certain persons like yourself have a con- 
tempt for the man who designed it, and 
prefer for a time to follow the track, worn 
by the men going up at night, that runs 
beside the trench. However, you will have 
walked about one hundred yards and then 
the trench shows signs of wear. It is an 
ordinary sort of ditch, about three or four 
feet wide at the bottom. In its youth it 
was narrower, but it has gradually got 



120 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

wider. It is about five feet deep. The 
earth taken from it has been piled up on 
each side, forming a mound. Along each 
side you will see that stakes have been 
driven in and expanded metal stretched 
between to keep the earth from sliding. 
Sometimes hurdles are made of three or 
four stout stakes with thinner branches of 
trees threaded through them. These are 
driven in and attached firmly to the sides 
of the trench. The stakes go up about 
two feet above the level of the ground, and 
the earth that has been taken from the 
trench is piled up against them. Hence 
you are walking up a narrow lane hemmed 
in by earth. This is a trench in its perfec- 
tion. Alas, Mr. Bosche has a dislike for a 
perfect communication trench and takes 
pains to knock it about a great deal. Hence 
it is always in an imperfect state. The 
dizzies are generally all right. They are 
so small that it is difficult to get a direct 



TRENCH LIFE 121 

hit on them, but the sides are generally in 
a pretty bad state, especially in winter. 

The trench may be very long. I sup- 
pose as the crow flies the distance it covers 
is not great, but it winds about so much 
that by the time you get to the fire trench 
you feel that you have walked a couple of 
miles. As you go up you will meet people, 
some looking imhappy and worried, espe- 
cially if the trench has been bombarded 
and the engineers have been mending it. 
The most unhappy looking are the Artil- 
lery signallers. They have wires attached 
to the sides of the trench and the sappers 
in mending it have ignored their wire, and 
they cannot tell which is theirs or which 
the other battery's. They tap in occasion- 
ally and find themselves talking to all kinds 
of irate people. You will notice as you go 
that at the sides of the trench there are 
rows of telephone wires, sometimes tidily 
arranged and labelled, sometimes all 
tangled up. They try to keep them tidy, 



122 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

but a shell has a habit of breaking wire 
even if it bursts a little way off, and the 
broken ends get all mixed up. Then you 
will meet an engineer officer in charge of a 
working party repairing the trench. Pon't 
be surprised if he looks quite smart and 
clean. He will talk, perhaps, to your of- 
ficer if he is English. If French he will 
express pleasure in some way. However, 
don't expect to see him looking fearfully 
serious. People get very flippant at the 
front. 

On you will walk, and soon you will be 
getting fairly close to the fire trench. It 
is not a bit exciting. As you get nearer 
you wiU catch up to people carrying all 
sorts of things, such as sheets of corru- 
gated iron which were never designed for 
transportation up a trench. Sometimes 
they will be carrying long stakes and lots 
of liunber which catch in the corners. The 
language of the British Tommy, though 
sincere and to the point, is not at all ele- 



TRENCH LIFE 123 

gant. There is one word he uses at fre- 
quent intervals. You'll find out what it is. 

Soon you will see masses of built-up 
sandbags like the dizzies, only they are not 
round. Some of them have an elegant look, 
some of them bulge out and threaten at 
any moment to tumble down. A man may 
spend days fixing up one of these squares 
and one sandbag will burst or get broken 
at the bottom, and if not attended to at 
once the whole thing will collapse. How- 
ever, whenever possible these squares of 
sandbags will be supported by the hurdles 
I spoke of or the sheets of expanded metal. 
At any rate, you will see a mass of these 
squares and the whole thing looks like the 
entrance to a maze. 

If it is summer you will see quite a lot 
of men sitting about, sometimes reading 
papers and magazines, and if it is an Eng- 
lish trench at least four people will be 
bending over what they call a ^^Dexie," 
and if an Australian trench, what they call 



124 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

a ' ^ Billy ' ' making tea. My impressions of 
the trenches at all times and seasons has 
been made up of Tommies making tea. 
Some men will be filling sandbags — re- 
building or strengthening the square 
masses. 

These squares form the traverses of 
the trench, and prevent the enemy from 
enfilading from a flank, for the trenches 
wind about a great deal and at parts pre- 
sent a straight line to the enemy. How- 
ever, you will follow the maze a few yards 
farther on and will find yourself in the 
actual fire trench and the nearest point to 
the Germans. It will be as ordinary a 
performance as going down Broadway, in 
fact the communication trench may be 
called Broadway. The fire trench looks 
neat, as it must be. It doesn't stretch far, 
but is interrupted by one of the squares 
we saw before. 

It might be well to explain here that all 
trenches are not below ground. They are 



TRENCH LIFE 125 

better if they are, but in Northern France 
and in most of Belgium during the winter 
one strikes water at about twelve inches. 
The front of the trench, therefore, is built 
up from the ground. It may be twenty 
feet thick and slope gradually off to the 
Germans. It is made up of earth largely, 
and bully-beef tins, and all sorts of rub- 
bish. This is called the parapet. About 
three feet behind the parapet a parados 
appears. This may be one of the squares 
of sandbags that you noticed on entering 
the trench. It forms a narrow lane. The 
parados prevents bits from a bursting 
high explosive shell from flying back. 
Many of the trenches you may occupy will 
be formed principally of a parapet and a 
parados. They require much more work 
than the ordinary trench because they de- 
pend often upon sandbags, and one sand- 
bag bursting will cause a lot of trouble. 
Sandbags require careful filling. They 
must not be too full and not too empty, as 



126 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

it all depends upon what you want them 
for. I don't expect you will err in filling 
them too full. 

As you go along the trenches you will 
notice sentries on duty in the fire trench. 
They have chosen certain spots where the 
German parapet has been knocked down a 
bit, and are watching out for the heads of 
careless Germans. The parapet in yours 
will not be perfect, so look out! Often 
w^hen you are going along feeling perfectly 
safe you will be astonished to see quite a 
lot of the German trench. Obviously you 
can be seen if anyone is looking. In the 
winter some trenches of the built-up sort 
get in a very bad state ; the parapet seems 
to be slipping away. The trouble is that 
in the winter the Infantry spend such short 
intervals in the trenches that they only get 
started on repairs when they are relieved. 
Also, they don't enjoy building up the 
trench for the people who follow them. 
This is human nature, and so the responsi- 



TRENCH LIFE 127 

bility for keeping up the repairs rests on 
no one in particular. Sometimes where the 
parapet is low a danger notice is placed, 
but as it remains lying about or floating 
after the trench has been repaired, one 
grows to ignore these signs. It seems that 
the British are not good at building 
trenches. You will be astonished at the 
beauty of construction displayed by the 
enemy in his. 

One day in the winter I was wading 
through a trench in which there was about 
three to four feet of water. Little bridges 
on unsteady legs had been made, but some 
time the legs at one end had collapsed, 
leaving the boards floating. One going 
along suddenly found one's self in a deep 
pool of water. The boards get very slip- 
pery, too. It is impossible not to fall in 
occasionally. My suggestion is to arrange 
your fall so that you won't come down on 
your side. You will be supplied with big 
rubber boots reaching to your waist. 



128 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

While these are new they keep a fellow 
fairly dry about the feet. They seem to 
be part of the trench furnishings, and are 
handed on to the people who relieve you. 
Obviously it is a good idea to think of the 
man who will use them next. 

On this particular day I had fallen in a 
few times, and arriving at a particularly 
unpleasant place got on to some higher 
ground. Bang, whizz! and a sandbag an 
inch from my head burst, and two Tom- 
mies crouching near yelled: ''You lucky 
lad." Tommies don't speak as a rule so 
familiarly to officers, but that spot had 
trapped several people before who were 
not so lucky. 

There is so much water about that it is 
almost impossible to fill sandbags suffi- 
ciently quickly to repair the damage which 
is being done daily. 

Your first experience in the trenches 
will probably be interesting, but in a quiet 
part of the line — there are many such. 



TRENCH LIFE 129 

You will be, possibly, the guests of some 
other company of more experience, and 
they will make things as pleasant as pos- 
sible for you. But don't judge trenches 
by this first experience ! Many people im- 
agine that something fearful is happening 
all the time ; to their minds there is con- 
stant banging. As a matter of fact, a 
trench is often for hours as quiet as any 
peaceful countryside in America. Of 
course, it gets fearfully noisy sometimes 
when your own Artillery are bombarding 
the opposite trench. If they are using field 
guns and the shells are passing over your 
head don't remain in the open. Get behind 
something. A shell may be badly made. 
The copper driving band may have come 
off during fiight, and the shell will con- 
sequently fall short, and as the target is 
very close it may fall on top of you. Most 
experienced soldiers get under cover at 
once. It is also a good thing to watch out 
when the enemy trench is being bombarded 



130 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

opposite you. If the trenches are very 
close he may not retaliate, but you never 
know, and at any rate, he is going to re- 
turn the business in some way. He won't 
fire at your battery. That is one of the 
unpleasant things about this war. The 
Infantry on both sides always get it ! An 
Artillery officer starts a pleasant bom- 
bardment of the Hun trench, and if the 
day is a good one enjoys himself thor- 
oughly. It is quite an interesting diver- 
sion from a good observation post. If the 
battery has properly responded to his 
orders he will go back and express pleas- 
ure to them, and they will regard them- 
selves as first-class heroes. Meanwhile the 
Hun has responded with a good many 
shells into your communication trench and 
you suffer. He does not seem to bombard 
front-line trenches quite so much as do we. 
It is said that the German Infantry of- 
ficers object to this for fear of retaliation. 
Hence when coming down a communica- 



TKENCH LIFE 131 

tion trench while your Artillery are bom- 
barding the German trench near, look out ! 
Keep your eyes on any holes that are 
about. It is always the first round that 
is dangerous. After the first, and there is 
often an interval of several minutes, you 
have time to get out of it into some safe 
place. Still people are very careless ! 

I was in an observation post once right 
up in the roof of a house when a staff of- 
ficer visited me, and I showed him a little 
of the hostile country. He was very 
charming and helped to pass a cheerful 
hour. He left with many thanks, and to 
my horror walked calmly out of the front 
door, well exposed to the Hun. It was 
very brave of him, I suppose. One might 
have admired his coolness ! Half an hour 
afterwards I was crouching in the cellar 
of that house, certainly surrounded by 
many sandbags and fairly safe, but the 
house above me was receiving many 
^ ^ crmnps. ' ' It was a nuisance because my 



132 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

best Ziess glasses had been forgotten in 
my rush down the ladder when the first 
shell arrived on the road in front of the 
house. The Bosches started this business 
at about eleven thirty, and went on for two 
hours, although they fired only about thirty 
big shells. Each round was, however, f ol- 
low^ed by a spray of shrapnel well to the 
rear. We were fairly safe, although the 
men's stew boiling in the back yard showed 
signs of getting ruined. We did not go 
out to get it, but just crouched hesitat- 
ingly, as every time we decided to go out 
another shell would come. As we sat there 
to my astonishment I saw two Infantry 
soldiers calmly walk into the back yard. I 
went out to them. They saluted. Sol- 
diers still salute at the front. One had 
two ugly fuzes in his hands. I asked them 
what the hell they were doing, didn't they 
know the house was being bombarded ? Oh 
yes ! they knew, but they wanted to see if 
anyone had been hurt, and also wanted 



TRENCH LIFE 133 

the fuzes. I thought this unfair, as I felt 
that the fuzes ought to belong to me as I 
was the ob j ect of the bombardment. How- 
ever, they very kindly gave me one and 
then strolled off. 

You'll collect shell fuzes all right. 
They are not very heavy and the mark- 
ings on them look interesting. Also you 
will risk your life very often to get them. 
I have seen a gun position being heavily 
bombarded by about two hundred shells, 
and as evening crept on crowds of gun- 
ners and Infantry fellows, armed with 
spades, started to accumulate, and young 
officers, too, only they didn't carry l^he 
spades. My dugout got a ^'whizzbang'' 
about six yards from it one day, and as I 
was going on leave the next, I wanted the 
fuze badly ; but I had to put my servant as 
a sentry near the place to stop others from 
rushing to get it. I even had to watch him, 
for I'm sure he would have pinched it him- 
self. At Ypres the hunt for shell fuzes is 



134 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

not so keen. They are so common there. 
You are quite certain to be one of the col- 
lectors, and you will either bring the prizes 
home to your family, sell them to the sup- 
ply men, or lose them — you will probably 
do the latter. Sometimes the wretched 
things come hurtling through the air from 
the efforts of Archibald. Archibald is a 
nuisance. He is an anti-aircraft gun that 
goes about on a motor lorry. His noise is 
disturbing at lunch time, and he seldom 
seems to hit anything, but he does keep 
the airplanes well up in the air and dis- 
turbs the observer who is looking for you. 
In the trenches you will seldom be very 
much disturbed by bomb dropping from 
aircraft. They might hit their own In- 
fantry. I had a friend who, after a weary 
day in the air observing for our battery, 
having been exposed to the German Archi- 
balds, took such a dislike to the Germans 
that he came down quite low and dashed 
along above their trench at a terrific rate, 



TRENCH LIFE 135 

pouring his machine gun into them. This 
was satisfactory to him, but the Germans 
shot at him with their rifles, and a rifle 
elevated will fire a bullet a long way. It 
comes down somewhere and gains velocity 
on the journey. It generally comes down 
in an Artillery position and makes things 
a little uncertain. 

In the trenches you will need to watch 
out for falling shrapnel fired by your own 
side at hostile aircraft, and, in fact, it is 
always a good thing to be very careful 
about exposing yourself to such machines. 
He won't hit you with a bomb, but he will 
signal to his artillery. Even they may not 
get you, but he will be able to tell them 
when they are on the spot, and the next 
lot of fellows coming along will get it in 
the neck. Generally in field-service uni- 
form if you stand still you won't be seen. 
Just a few men walking along are safe, 
but if a platoon of Infantry continue 
marching the dust they disturb will give 



136 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

tlie show away. If they look up it is very 
easy for the observer to spot them. A 
face from a great height looks perfectly 
white — so if you are forbidden to look up 
remember the reason. In a battery it is 
very important not to show yourself. If 
you are in a comfortable sort of place, 
letting an airplane see you is a sure way 
of getting the farm house where you live 
imder the care of Madame and Marie 
Louise smashed to pieces, and the gun em- 
placements that have taken weeks to make, 
destroyed. This is merely common sense. 
Still, people are very careless and don't 
think. Warning is always given when hos- 
tile aircraft are approaching, and every 
one with any common sense ought to get 
under cover. In the actual trenches you 
w411 at times get but little sleep. At cer- 
tain times you won't be allowed even to 
enter a dugout, but will have to sleep on 
the fire step. You may have no blankets 
even in the winter, and will have to sleep 



TRENCH LIFE 137 

in the rain and damp with cold, wet feet. 
On these occasions the time in the front 
trench will not be very long. After leav- 
ing the trenches you will probably spend 
a few days in what are called fortified 
posts. You won't do very much work by 
day except repair work, and judging by 
the appearance of many of these fortified 
posts they need it pretty badly. 

I suppose you have all read about the 
first Christmas day in the trenches, when 
at certain parts of the line the soldiers on 
each side stepped into No Man's Land, 
exchanged hats, and generally had an in- 
teresting time. It has never occurred 
since. Hate has taken too firm a posses- 
sion of the mind of the soldier to allow 
this sort of thing to happen again. Be- 
sides, it is discouraged by the Senior Of- 
ficers on both sides. You see, we just 
can't trust the Germans. It is an awful 
pity. However, at parts of the line where 
the trenches are very close together, you 



138 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

will often have the chance of telling the 
Germans in good solid American what 
you think of them. If you are a Pennsyl- 
vania Dutchman, this will be simple, al- 
though a good many Germans seem to be 
able to speak English. However, even 
this is discouraged. 

I remember one night having to go down 
to the trenches, and as I approached the 
communication trench I could hear a 
mighty shouting, punctuated by rifle 
shots and machine-gun fire. The whole 
thing sounded like an exciting game of 
football. Everybody seemed to be shout- 
ing and laughing. When I got down to 
the fire trench it was possible to hear some 
of the things both sides were saying. I 
am afraid that our men were not particu- 
larly polite in their remarks. It was im- 
possible to understand everything the 
Germans said, but I dare say there were 
some pretty solid phrases sent over in 
Dutch. Both sides seemed to call one an- 



TRENCH LIFE 139 

other by their Christian names. One 
could hear the Germans calling out 
^^ Tommy,'' and the Tommies replying by 
calling out ^^ Fritz.'' All I could hear the 
G-ermans say was : * ' How do you do ? " ^ ' It 
is a nice night to-night. " '' Have you any 
cigarettes, Tommys' ^^Gott save our 
' cracious ' Kaing. ' ' There was much Ger- 
man spoken which I could not understand. 
That night seemed quite the wrong sort 
of night to spend killing people. The 
stars were shining very brightly, and there 
was a wonderful full moon with just a 
gentle breeze bloT\rLng. It was late in Sep- 
tember, and the trenches had not become 
muddy and unpleasant. I remember walk- 
ing about in the trenches; bullets were 
whizzing about overhead, although one 
was perfectly safe. The books I had read 
of people standing on the battlements and 
fortifications came back to me. I must say 
that the feeling was really enjoyable. I 
was so safe. One felt that one was trying 



140 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

to do the things that one's forefathers had 
done. Incidentally, I was doing nothing. 
Before this war we had got so hopelessly 
civilized. Many of ns had found life such 
a certain thing. There never seemed to be 
any danger of anything unpleasant hap- 
pening. Although in many ways the war 
has lowered the value of human life, to 
the actual individual soldier life has be- 
come of supreme importance, so that one 
perhaps lives more at the front than any- 
where else. 

In trench warfare the people in the 
trenches don't spend all their time build- 
ing up broken-down parapets, although 
at times it will seem to you that your life 
is that of a filler of sandbags. There is a 
miniature kind of warfare going on all the 
time. It relieves the monotony and keeps 
the enemy busy. Besides, one must be 
prepared for anything the enemy may 
have up his sleeve. You, yourself, will 
be concerned mostly with *^ patrols" and 



TRENCH LIFE 141 



a 



listening posts. ' ' Listening posts are un- 
pleasant things. As the name suggests, 
the person in a listening post has to listen. 
As a rule, it can't be done in the trench. 
People are always talking and flopping 
about in the mud, so in order to secure the 
listener as much quiet as possible, shal- 
low lanes called saps are run out a little 
way into the place between the trenches 
called ^^No Man's Land." One would 
think that at this date "l^o Man's Land" 
would require but little explanation, and 
yet I was talking to a fellow in one of your 
big machine shops here about the war, and 
he said — ^^ Anyway, it was a good thing 
that the British had now captured 'No 
Man's Land,' as it must have been a horrid 
place. ' ' Unfortunately, ' ' No Man 's Land ' ' 
is like the poor, always with you. Obvi- 
ously you can't live with the G-ermans; 
there must be some space between. This 
may be quite a small area ; just a common 
bit of ground, but it has all the mystery of 



142 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

the Sahara Desert. Strange things happen 
in ''No Man^s Land'' at night time. One 
sees it by day; not a movement — a few 
uniforms that used to contain men lying 
about — a few ditches perhaps full of simi- 
lar uniforms — a mass of barbed wire, a 
few stumps of willow trees ; and at parts, 
long dark masses or rank, growing grass. 
Perhaps there are the ruins of an old farm 
house, now just a few bricks. Yet the 
place, sometimes not much bigger than a 
fair-sized garden, is of vital interest to 
both your side and the other side. At 
night time the place is alive with men 
crawling about in the centre, others mend- 
ing wire, and yourself crouching in the 
listening post. 

I remember going along the trenches 
at about midnight and meeting a fellow 
I knew at Cambridge, and after having a 
glass of port with him in his dugout, going 
out to ^dsit one of his men in the listening 
post. We crept through a sally port in 



TRENCH LIFE 143 

the trencli, and then walked along the bor- 
row ditch, I'll tell you what a borrow ditch 
is in a minute, and then after turning at 
right angles along the shallow ditch we 
found a youth of about eighteen crouch- 
ing down with his rifle ready. He had a 
sort of nest hollowed out and his rifle rest- 
ing on two or three sandbags in front of 
him. My friend asked him a few ques- 
tions, and he told him something about 
transport wheels that he had heard, and 
then we left him alone. Duty in a listen- 
ing post may be interesting, though it is 
not a very nice job; still it is quite an 
ordinary experience in the trenches. The 
object is to give quick warning of the ap- 
proach of hostile patrols, raids, and worse 
still, of poisonous gas. Gas emission can be 
heard. Also, information can be gleaned 
about the movement of troops just behind 
the trenches, whether enemy troops are 
being relieved or not. You will find that 
your officers will want to know a great deal 



144 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

about all sorts of little things. Little bits 
of information put together make some- 
thing for the staff people to work upon. 
Obviously it must be as accurate as pos- 
sible, not imaginary. You'll find it diffi- 
cult not to imagine quite a lot. The re- 
sult of your work will appear in reports 
issued to men of your Army Corps. You 
must never let a hostile patrol get within 
bomb throwing distance of you, or you are 
done. You have also an important duty 
to perform in keeping the men in the 
trenches safe from surprise attacks. 

It is important that you should not carry 
anything on you that will be of interest to 
the enemy. They will always try, if pos- 
sible, to take you alive, though this is dif- 
ficult ; it will depend upon the amount of 
barbed mre around you. If they get you 
in their trench, they will pump you by fair 
means or foul, but generally by fair means, 
to get as much information as possible. 
However, you will be told all about this. 



TRENCH LIFE 145 

Now patrols go out every nigM under a 
junior officer, generally below the rank 
of captain. Sometimes a good N.C.O. 
takes charge. I was building two gun 
emplacements in the front parapet with 
some engineers, and a working party of 
my own men. I had dined with the CO., 
who was a Captain Walton, an exceedingly 
brave officer after breakfast, and as brave 
as a lion after supper. He seemed to enjoy 
patrols. Walton was a member of a very 
ancient English family. He had been an 
officer in a good regiment, but evidently 
desired to roam. The war found him in 
New Zealand, gum digging. He was going 
outside for some reason or other and asked 
me to go with him. It was not my busi- 
ness to patrol with him, chiefly because I 
had about twenty men working for me, 
and there was really no point in going 
out. However, it is the nightly perform- 
ance of an Infantry officer, and he does 
not regard it as anything very special. I 

10 



146 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

must admit that I was not madly keen to 
go, but I found difficulty in refusing, so 
off we went. As soon as we got out, and to 
tell you the truth, it was so dark that I 
didn't quite know when we were out, 
I commenced to call myself a fool, and 
got cold feet. However, we did not go 
very far, and on the way back I dis- 
covered that I had forgotten to take my 
revolver with me. It was very nasty 
and dirty, and too dark to feel anything 
but stakes and mud and a few ditches; 
and to follow as well as possible the dark 
shape in front of me, which was Walton. 
He walked quite erect. I bent well down. 
As a matter of fact, the first time a fellow 
goes on a patrol it is very unpleasant. 
The men accompanying the officer are 
picked men. They must be fellows whom 
he can trust, and so it is regarded as an 
honor to be chosen for the job. 

The first time I heard about a borrow 
ditch was while taking tea at a toT\Ti called 



TEENCH LIFE 147 

Estaires. Four Infantry officers were 
seated at the same table. They asked me 
a good many questions about the work of 
the Artillery. One fellow who was by 
way of being a wit said: ^'In our trench 
we have all decided to live in the borrow, 
ditch. It is safer." I will have to ex- 
plain this joke. In northern France and 
in Flanders where the trenches have to be 
built up from the level of the ground, a 
very strong parapet has to be built in front. 
It sometimes is as much as 30 or 40 feet 
thick. Now obviously the earth to form 
this parapet has to come from somewhere. 
It can't very well be taken from the trench 
side, so it has to be taken from the side 
nearer the enemy. In other words, a 
trench of the kind one usually thinks about 
when talking of trenches is dug and the 
earth is thrown up to form the parapet. 
As it is never needed for defensive pur- 
poses, its width is not a matter of any 
great importance, so along the front of 



148 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

the parapet there is a shallow kind of 
lane dug. It is between the commencement 
of the wire entanglements and the actnal 
trench. What the Infantry officer meant 
in his jeering remark was that the shoot- 
ing of his Artillery had been so unsteady 
that shells were constantly dropping in 
the trench proper, and that therefore it 
was safer for him to spend his day in the 
borrow ditch. The name is really sugges- 
tive. The earth is borrowed and then 
throw^n up to form the parapet. In win- 
ter the borrow ditch is little more than a 
quagmire. Still, at night time, it is ver}^ 
much peopled by men mending wire. 
There are often little tunnels dug in the 
parapet leading into the borrow ditch, and 
quite often people go into it by day. This 
is more possible in the summer when the 
grass grows very high, and the wind dis- 
turbing it, naturally movement is seldom 
detected. However, you will know all 
about borrow ditches before you are fin- 



TRENCH LIFE 149 

ished. Perhaps you will call them by an- 
other name. I don't suppose that the In- 
fantry officer was really serious, but was 
merely jeering at my arm of the service. 
As a matter of fact, however, it is not a 
very difficult thing for a shell coming from 
a high-velocity gun to hit the parapet of 
its own trench. This happens quite often 
when the trenches, Allied and German, are 
close together. 

I remember standing by a sally port one 
night in the trenches, and a shape crept in 
from outside. At first I thought it must 
be a Grerman, but soon it turned into an 
old Tommy. He was a corporal whom I 
knew, and upon being asked where he had 
been, he said that he had been out to hear 
the Germans sing. '^Lord, they do sing 
lovely,'' he said. I was astonished that a 
man should risk his life just to hear the 
Germans sing, and then he pointed out to 
me that I was standing on the fire step 
with my head above the parapet, which 



150 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

he thought more dangerous than going out- 
side. Opinions differ on this point. As 
he said, ^*If I have my 'ead above the 
parapet and get shot I go to 'ell ; if I get 
scuppered out in ^ISTo Man's Land' I go 
to ^blighty'."* He meant that if one got 
shot out in '^No Man's Land " there was 
a reasonable chance of getting a body 
wound, but with your head above the para- 
pet, the chance of getting your head blown 
off was likely. A little illogical, this, but 
there is a shade of sense about it. As a 
matter of fact, at night time people mostly 
ignore the parapet, except as a quick way 
of getting along the trench without trail- 

* When a British soldier gets a wound that 
will assure him a rest in a hospital and possibly a 
visit to England and home he has got a "Blighty." 
I hope I have spelled correctly. Most British 
soldiers spent part of their service in India. 
The Hindustani word for England sounds like 
* 'Blighty/' Hence when they return to England 
from India they return to "Blighty." That is 
the only explanation I know and I won't voucli 
for its accuracy. 



TRENCH LIFE 151 

ing througli the mud. Frankly, it seems 
better to me to walk along the trench and 
tmnble down a hundred times, than to 
walk along the top of the parapet. 

Still, we all do it ; and so will you. 

Some men enjoy patrols, in fact, I think 
that most of them do. An oflcer having 
the responsibility does not like it very 
much, but one sees the men before going 
out quite happy and a little excited about 
it. I overheard three talking one day 
when I was observing the German trench 
opposite, and one said: '^ Jerry went out 
on patrol last night for the first time; 
he brought in three shell noses and a 
scull.'' The Tommy spoke as though 
Jerry had gone to a music hall the night 
before and had enjoyed it. The thing on 
patrol is to be as careful and as quiet as 
possible. There are, of course, German 
patrols about. Everything depends upon 
the object of the patrol. It may be to find 
out something about a ditch. It may be 



152 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

merely a defensive bit of work ; your wire 
may have been cut and you want advance 
information of any likely raids. You may 
be going to bomb an enemy listening post. 
This is exciting and fruitful. The thing 
is to attend carefully to orders. Careless- 
ness on your part will kill every man with 
you. Watch out for German star shells, 
or Very 's lights, as we call them. As soon 
as the shell leaves the pistol (it does not 
light up the country at once), fall dovm or 
stand perfectly still and you won't be seen. 
If, however, it is coming straight over you, 
fall down or else you will be silhouetted 
against its glare. At first on a patrol you 
will go about with your head bent down, 
finally you will walk in an ordinary way. 
Of course, when close to the German trench 
you will creep. The whole thing seems to 
be arranged on a definite scheme. The of- 
ficer goes in the centre and is guarded in 
front and rear, and sometimes at the side 
by a bomber. He is armed with a good re- 



TRENCH LIFE 153 

volver, and may even carry a bomb. He 
will give directions before leaving and will 
also have a prearranged sign for move- 
ments. Once more you will have to be 
very careful. Frankly, as an Artillery 
officer, it has never been my duty to lead a 
patrol. What I am telling you has been 
gleaned from friends in the Infantry. I 
know this, however, that if you go on 
patrol with an officer you are one of his 
very best men, and will be well instructed 
in your duties. 

As a forward observing Artillery of- 
ficer visiting perhaps several companies 
of Infantry, one has many chances for ob- 
serving conditions. Also, one goes down 
to the trenches a great deal, escaping, how- 
ever, the more extreme discomforts. 



CHAPTEE IX 

GAS AND OTHER FANCIES 

The poor de\dls holding the trenches at 
Ypres one day saw heavy clouds of vapor 
arising from the enemy's trenches in front 
of them. The wind being favorable, it 
came slowly on and finally they breathed 
it. After a time they were mostly dead, 
and the Germans ceasing to emit gas, 
found little diificulty in getting through 
the wire and advancing over thousands 
of dead or dying British, Canadians, and 
Frenchmen. Many, of course, lived, and 
there are wonderful tales of heroism. It 
is almost too horrible to write about ! Just 
imagine having to fight a man with his 
hands tied. One almost pities the Ger- 
man soldier. However, as the enemy ad- 
vanced, they began to find men who had 
failed to die, although dying. Their hands 

154 




READY FOR GAS 

They are crossing a dangerous zone near Chemin des Dames — all 
animals in use behind and within the lines are provided with protective 
coverings 



GAS AND OTHER FANCIES 155 

were not tied. They could breathe a little, 
they could fight, and they did. The Artil- 
lery were still in action, too, and the for- 
ward observation officers, tying wet hand- 
kerchiefs round their mouths, directed the 
fire. Had the Germans succeeded in kill- 
ing, by decent means, the same number of 
men, the war would probably have been 
over — at any rate, Calais would now be in 
the hands of the Germans — but the devil, 
their master, could not imbue them with 
the courage of decent soldiers. They 
feared the wind would change ; they failed 
to advance, although it was easy. 

Of course, in a very short time all the 
British and French were supplied with 
some sort of mask to protect them, and 
the danger, in a large sense, was over. Gas 
emission, never a great success, is now a 
normal method of warfare. Two gas hel- 
mets are supplied to each man. They are 
kept in a neat wallet, and, are carried 
slung over the shoulder. They are changed 



156 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

at regular intervals, and are supposed to 
be inspected daily. Don't lose your gas 
mask or keep a pair of socks in it, like 
the fellow in the London Punch story. 
You may escape an attack for months and 
then get caught. There are always gas 
cylinders somewhere about, either in your 
trench or in the enemy's, and a shell or 
bullet may burst them — so take great care 
of the mask. 

Of course, there are very often false 
gas alarms, but, thank goodness, the stuff 
will only come over when the wind is fa- 
vorable, so when you get an alarm, and 
the wind is imfavorable, the chances are 
that it is false. However, as gas does its 
work very quickly, it is my advice to you 
not to take too many chances. There is 
no point in running, for the gas will spread 
quicker than you can run up a communi- 
cation trench. It is said that a little re- 
lief can be got by wetting your handker- 
chief and placing it over your mouth. If, 



GAS AND OTHER FANCIES 157 

however, you have your masks this will 
be unnecessary — don't take your mask 
wallet off your shoulder and don't leave 
it on the ground and forget it when you 
are working iehind the lines on a hot day 
with your coat off. Gas may arrive that 
night. 

I was working in the trenches one night 
when there was a gas alarm, and I saw a 
young officer go rushing down the trench 
yelling to some one to give him a mask 
*'for the love of God." He was a bit hys- 
terical. I got my mask out and com- 
menced to put it on and smelt something 
nasty and felt duly thrilled, and a little 
scared, for I had twenty gimners working 
with me and we were unarmed except for 
myrevolver. Itwas in the early days of the 
war, and the Artillery could not be spared 
many rifles. A strategic retreat seemed 
the best thing for myself and gunners in 
the event of an attack, for we would 
merely be in the way, and I had no desire 



158 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

to have my perfectly good gunners cap- 
tured without a chance to fight. In any 
case, I had little faith in their shooting 
with rifles. My sergeant, too, would have 
been difficult for he had expressed the in- 
tention of returning to England with the 
Victoria Cross. He would have fought 
the nearest Infantry soldier for his rifle, 
and I am sure would have made himself 
a nuisance. He did, as it was, for while 
working the night before, and during my 
absence, he had borrowed a rifle from the 
sentry near and had commenced blazing 
away at the German parapet. Unfortu- 
nately, the trench at this point was forced 
back by a salient in the German line. This 
salient formed a kind of elbow, and our 
trench went straight at the side of this 
elbow, and then stopped almost in the air. 
For a few yards the trench that we were 
in ran parallel to this part ; obviously, care 
was needed in firing from our part in case 
the sentries in the other should receive 



GAS AND OTHER FANCIES 159 

bullets in their backs. Later I was in the 
officers' dugout, and the young subaltern 
in command of the trench that approached 
the German salient entered and said that 
he did not expect to have any men left at 
all unless the people in our part of the 
trench showed a little more care. None 
of them had been really hurt, but bullets 
had been whizzing past their ears. I 
blushed for my sergeant, but had not the 
heart to tell him what he had been doing. 
I merely forbade him to shoot, and told 
the sentry near not to lend him his rifle. 
You see, that sergeant wanted the Vic- 
toria Cross badly. 

There were no opportunities for heroism 
during the week we were working in the 
trench, and as we returned one night to 
the battery, and thank heaven it was the 
last night, my sergeant said sadly, *^Well, 
Sir, if a general was to come up to one of 
my men and say ^ 'ere's the V.C., I'd shake 
'is 'and and say, ^Well done, lad!' For, 
Sir, it ain't the best men wot ^ts the 



160 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

honners." He was a wonderful sergeant, 
that, a product of Kitchener's army — it 
would have been difficult to find a better 
one among the regulars. 

But owing to his purely Artillery train- 
ing he would have been a nuisance if the 
Bosches had attacked with gas that night. 
It proved to be a false alarm, and the scent 
I had smelt was my own gas mask, being 
unfolded and coming straight from the 
wallet. A man in a listening post reported 
that he had seen something green, and 
had given the gas signal. 

When gas is emitted one can never be 
sure what the Bosches are going to do. 
Sometimes they send gas over merely to 
use it up in order to have empty cylin- 
ders for fresh poison of a new nature; 
sometimes they will merely use it as the 
preliminary to a raid or small attack. Once 
my division was given a large munber of 
these gas cylinders to emit for this latter 
purpose. The gas arrived about two weeks 



GAS AND OTHER FANCIES 161 

before we were due to go back into reserve 
for rest and recuperation ; we were at first 
interested and decided to have a good 
*^ strafe." Unfortunately, you cannot 
take this poison up to the trenches like a 
barrel of water, as its contents might be 
punctured by a bullet. This is awkward 
and everybody gets uncomfortable. Hence 
the matter must be thought out carefully. 
Possibly the Artillery are warned not to 
disturb the Germans too much and even 
the Infantry may be told to avoid too much 
sniping, and endeavor to lull the Bosches 
to sleep. I doubt their being much de- 
ceived, but I am sure they enjoy the rest. 

Finally the day arrives when the con- 
founded stuff has to be taken down to the 
trenches. It is like a military ceremony 
or a wedding. Certain gentlemen are 
given the honor of carrying the cylinders. 
They don't enjoy it, but, getting their 
masks on, start off. Orders have been 
issued to all the troops for a long distance 
11 



162 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

around that this procession will start at a 
certain time. They are notified that cer- 
tain gas cylinders are going up, and that 
a bugle will give some sort of warning, in 
the event of a puncture. Can you imagine 
it? That solemn procession of muddy 
Tommies solemnly carrying those kegs, 
preceded and followed by a bugler, carry- 
ing death and horribleness in some com- 
mon-looking kegs. So they stumble along 
up the communication trench, round the 
dizzies, over the trench boards that are 
like long, narrow, flat spiders with wob- 
bling legs, and finally they arrive at the 
front line. No one is pleased to see the 
stuff — the real anxiety starts. The cylin- 
ders are fixed, and they require some fix- 
ing, in a certain way near the jDarapet. 
A strong part of the parapet is obviously 
chosen and they are protected as well as 
possible. There they wait for the wind, 
and it must be a permanent sort of wind, 
none of your light, zephyry, flippant 



GAS AND OTHER FANCIES 163 

winds, but a good, steady breeze, not too 
strong; the sort that makes things per- 
fectly fine on a hot day, the sort that a 
yachtsman likes to have when he is run- 
ning free. Now it is quite useless to 
let off gas without the aid of Artillery 
to make things unpleasant after the gas 
emission, even if you are not going to 
attack. So the Artillery have to be organ- 
ized, and this takes possibly a little time. 
Also, the wind must be blov^ing well at the 
right hour, and in warfare it is a tradi- 
tion always to attack just before dawn. It 
is an awkward time, as man is said to be at 
his lowest then. Often all will be ready 
and the wind will change ten minutes be- 
fore the moment set for the emission. Then 
we in the Artillery say ^^ curse," and go 
back to bed, and the men say ^ ^ curse '^ and 
feel in a bad temper all the next day. 

For weeks the wind refused to blow in 
the direction we wanted it to blow. No 
one could get away to have lunch or tea 
at A or B . 1 know one In- 



164 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

f antry officer who risked it and was hav- 
ing tea and talking Trench to the young 
lady in the tea shop when some one men- 
tioned casually that the wind was just 

fine for the Division's gas attack. 

He became panicky and rushed for his 
pony. He had ten miles or more to go, 
and he shuddered to think what would 
happen. As he rode along, he thought of 
his past life, and remembered how often 
he had been late for things, for lectures 
at the university, for w^eddings not his 
own, for dinner parties, but never had he 
been late for a battle. There was a cer- 
tain thrill about this — to be late for a 
battle. It sounded interesting and a cer- 
tain whimsical satisfaction took posses- 
sion of his mind. He was nearly late and 
would have been quite so if the wind had 
not shown signs of changing. 

Finally, the day arrived for us to go 
into reserve, so we kindly offered a legacy 
of several drimis of gas to the relieving 



GAS AND OTHER FANCIES 165 

division. While thanking us for our gen- 
erosity they declined, and wrote letters 
about it. We were told then to take the 
gas with us and have our ** strafe" upon 
our return. We then also wrote letters and 
finally it was decided to wait for the wind. 
It came one glorious evening, and we got 
ready. It was a frosty night, not very 
cold, however, but very clear. A fine full 
moon seemed to be rushing across the sky 
and the stars were fairly blazing. I was 
called at an unpleasant hour, and finding 
my way over to the guns saw that all was 
ready. My sergeants were both happy. 
I remember noticing how tidy everything 
was in the gun pits, the guns polished and 
clean, a lantern was burning and I noticed 
how bright the hat badges and buttons 
looked on the men. They seemed a little 
excited and very happy. They were going 
to give the Bosche a little of his own medi- 
cine, and were pleased about it. The 
moment arrived. With another officer I 



166 HOW TO LIVE AT THE PROxNT 

was up a large tripod where we could see 
the trenches. We could see the German 
flares sailing gracefully up in the air like 
beautiful snowballs. A few machine guns 
were tapping and a rifle occasionally rang 
out. Then the moment arrived. 

I have never been quite sure whether 
I could see that gas or not. It is easy to 
imagine things at the front. However, 
there seemed to be a large white billow or 
cloud rolling clumsily over to the German 
trenches. They sent up colored rockets, 
and commenced waving burning straw 
and paper at the parapet. The colored 
rockets were the German S.O.S., but their 
gunners must have been asleep for they 
did not fire for nearly half an hour. 

We in the Artillery remained silent 
until the gas had been all emitted, but 
around us there were many guns, each with 
a good store of shell ready to let loose. 
We let them go at the right moment, and 
then there was a glorious noise. Modern 



GAS AND OTHER FANCIEB 167 

warfare has little that is romantic about it, 
but when your side gets up a good Artil- 
lery bombardment it is quite thrilling. 
You don't seem to mind the retaliation 
chiefly because you don't hear the shells 
until they burst, and if you are alive and 
well you are safe. It is the sound of the 
shell coming that gives one the jumps. 

We did not do very much that night. 
We did not want to. In any case, the 
Bosche put a perfectly good searchlight 
on the wire we had cut, so the colonel de- 
cided that it would be a useless sacrifice of 
men. 

We were glad to get rid of that gas, and 
the next day we started to pack up for our 
month of reserve. 

You have possibly often heard that the 
essence of a successful attack is surprise. 
During the day under normal conditions 
the Germans and the British, except for 
Artillery fire, seldom do much fighting, but 



168 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

at night anything is liable to happen. Now 
both sides endeavor to prevent surprises 
by keeping ^^No Man's Land'' as much 
alight as possible. Sometimes you will see 
searchlights, but obviously these are very 
easily attacked by Artillery fire. The 
searchlights that are used are never the 
permanent kind that one sees on an ordi- 
nary fortification, but of a sort probably 
run up and down on a small trolley line. 
Both sides send up what appear to be 
rockets, although they are not really 
rockets. The Germans seem to have de- 
veloped this much more than their 
enemies. In the British army we call 
them Very's lights. They are fired from 
a pistol with a barrel about an inch in 
diameter. They look rather like the old- 
fashioned pistol that one sometimes sees 
in curiosity shops. The lights they give 
are very beautiful, but somehow do not 
seem to be as great a success as one would 
expect them to be. They light up the coun- 



GAS AND OTHER FANCIES 169 

try for about two square miles, and, in fact, 
the Artillery and transport wagons be- 
hind find them very useful. When, 
however, you are within a few hundred 
yards of them the glare is so great that 
it almost blinds you. They seem to be 
called "star shells." They start off with 
a hissing sound and very little light, but 
when they have got half way up they seem 
to unfold and suggest to one's mind beau- 
tiful white lilies. When they get as far 
as they are going they seem to linger, hang 
in the air for a second, and then float 
gracefully down, lighting up the country 
for miles. It is a fortunate thing that one 
gets a certain amount of warning, and the 
necessary steps can be taken for self-pres- 
ervation. As I have already said, it is im- 
portant that a fellow in "No Man's Land" 
should stand perfectly still or fall down 
if there is time. However, if they show 
signs of falling directly behind you, you 
will be silhouetted a black shape against 



170 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

the white light, and consequently a pretty 
good target. 

It seemed to me one of the most beauti- 
ful things in the world to climb a tall 
tree and look for miles along the trenches, 
seeing nothing else but these beautiful 
lights floating in the air. I remember the 
first time I saw one. I was going up to my 
battery position at night, and I saw what 
appeared to be a beautiful luminous snow- 
ball sailing towards me, and then gradu- 
ally dropping among the trees, out of sight. 

But Very's lights will be very common 
things to you before you are finished, and 
I do not suppose they will be a cause of 
worry if you remember to take precau- 
tions. Of course, if one hits you on the 
head when it is coming down it might 
burn or bruise you. 

Actually, before being fired, the lights 
look something like a small candle 
wrapped up in paper. The Germans seem 



GAS AND OTHER FANCIES 171 

to fire them from their borrow ditches. 
We also follow a like practice, but as our 
lights are not as good as theirs, we some- 
times venture a little farther out into '''So 
Man's Land." 

I remember once being down in the 
trenches at night sitting in the officers' 
mess dugout. I saw on the wall four of 
these pistols. I asked the officer what they 
were; he told me they were Very's light 
pistols. I expressed a wish to fire one of 
them, imagining that it would merely mean 
letting off the thing from the fire trench. 
I followed the officer out of the dugout, 
and in a few minutes found myself crawl- 
ing through the barbed wire entangle- 
ments in front of the trench. We got out 
about twenty-five yards and were roughly 
about fifty yards from the German trench. 
We crept along an old ditch which was full 
of mud and water. The officer whispered 
that he would count three and when he 
got to three we should all fire. There were 



172 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

five of US altogether, hence five lights would 
fly up. It seemed a little bit crude to me. 
The officer also whispered that it would be 
a good idea to crouch down into the ditch 
the moment we had fired the pistols, be- 
cause, as he explained, we would be sure 
to draw a burst of machine-gun fire. He 
counted three and whizz — up went the 
lights into the air. There were no results, 
so the officer whispered that we would fire 
another salvo. It seemed to me that I had 
had quite enough experience, but, how- 
ever, I loaded my pistol again, and once 
more we fired. The result this time was 
astonishing. The German sentry in a 
rather frightened voice yelled out, ^^ Don't 
you come over 'ere.'' It was spoken in 
perfect '^cockney." I suppose the German 
had been a waiter in London. We obeyed 
him and returned to our trench. Moral : 
Don't be too curious about strange look- 
ing weapons in the trenches. 

The Germans sometimes send a curious 



GAS AND OTHER FANCIES 173 

shell, which, after bursting, spreads a gas 
in the air which has the effect of making 
a man's eyes water. They water so much 
that it is impossible to see, and conse- 
quently impossible to point a gun accu- 
rately. They are called lacrymatory shells ; 
by the Tommies, weeping shells. The ef- 
fect does not appear to be very painful. 
Even several hours after the shell has ex- 
ploded the gas seems to linger in the air. 
Spectacles are supplied to the people who 
are likely to suffer. They do not worry the 
Infantry very much, and this is obvious, as 
the trenches are so close and the wind so 
uncertain that Fritz himself would be af- 
fected. For this reason they are generally 
fired at the Artillery. It is an irregular 
method of warfare and consequently has 
its shortcomings. 

I remember once the Germans spread a 
thick white va^por for miles roimd the 
country. It seemed to fall on us like a 
cloud. It smelt just a little, but was 



174 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

quite harmless. It is difficult to see the 
object of covering the country with smoke, 
because if their movements are hidden 
from you, your movements will also be 
hidden from them. Still, it is used some- 
times, so expect it. In fact, as both sides 
are looking for some invention that will 
remove what appears to be the stalemate 
of trench warfare, you may expect any- 
thing. 



CHAPTER X 
THE FOUR-LEGGED RECRUIT 

Theee is another recruit from America 
wlio will find himself on the battlefield, 
but who will dislike it intensely. It is 
impossible to give the horse tips, but a 
few can be given to you that will help him 
a great deal. 

A very large number of horses are lost 
and suffer on the battlefield, though the 
percentage of deaths from bullet and shell 
wounds is comparatively small. The little 
diseases that attack a horse become irri- 
tated and through the absence of a stable 
or loose box where he can be looked after 
it is sometimes impossible to save him. A 
large number break down and indeed die 
from sheer neglect and careless handling. 
A horse is really a very delicate animal. 
A bad cold often ends his usefulness, if 

175 



176 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

neglected. A cold becomes tubercular 
very rapidly and then he is finished. Now 
you can do much to save him if you will 
attend to a few little tips. Incidentally 
you will get fond of him in time, and doubt- 
less will worry more about his health 
than about your own. Some of you may 
be used to the care of horses, and can there- 
fore miss this chapter or enjoy finding out 
where I am wrong. These days the aver- 
age man's experience of a horse is limited. 
One is used mostly to seeing a sturdy ani- 
mal drawing a tradesman's cart. He is 
nicely kept and sleek looking. Sometimes 
one sees a horse drawing an old cart in 
such a condition that it is a wonder the 
owner isn't put under arrest for disgust- 
ing cruelty. However, the general impres- 
sion we mostly have is that the horse is a 
living automobile engine, who if well sup- 
plied with corn instead of gasoline, carries 
on well enough. But follow the trades- 
man home after he has finished his day's 



THE FOUR-LEGGED RECRUIT 177 

work, and you will find a very nice clean 
stable with plenty of straw awaiting tlie 
horse. You will notice that the horse is 
well rubbed down, looked after generally, 
watered, and well fed. Quite possibly, 
some of the children will bring him out 
some sugar. You will notice the stable is 
well ventilated. Under these conditions 
a horse will continue to keep in good 
health, and very little trouble is experi- 
enced in looking after him and keeping 
him fit. 

Now on service all this is changed, con- 
ditions are very irritating. One day he 
will have to work tremendously, and then 
perhaps for weeks he will have practically 
no work at all. Sometimes he will have a 
sheltered stable ; sometimes he will spend 
nights out in the rain and mud. It is 
only by the most careful looking after by 
ofiScers and men that a horse's life is bear- 
able at all. 

Now at times you will get orders from 
your officers in regard to the horse. They 

12 



178 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

will all have studied the question thor- 
oughly, and many will have read General 
Carter's fine work on the horse, ^^ Horses, 
Saddles, and Bridles." 

You might get that book if you have 
the chance ; it is good reading. 

I am going to try and explain a few lit- 
tle things that may make the obedience 
of orders easier. For when a man under- 
stands an order, obedience is a simple 
matter. 

If you are a Cavalry or Artillery re- 
cruit, your first experience of the horse 
may be a little comical. The mounts used 
in a riding school are very experienced 
and ignore you, attending rather to the 
riding master who has them well under 
control. Don't be surprised at what one 
of these horses may do ; at any rate, you 
are quite safe. The line to follow is to 
pretend that you are perfectly happy. You 
won 't be. But pretend. If you show fear, 
or worse still, irritation, you'll pay heavily 



THE FOUR-LEGGED RECRUIT 179 

for every sign of fear and very heavily 
for every sign of irritation. Eiding mas- 
ters are pretty fierce customers. They 
like the horses much more than they will 
ever like you. The object of the lessons 
are twofold : first, to give you a good seat 
so that you won't topple off at the wrong 
moment; secondly, to give the horse a 
good and kindly rider. 

I am going to talk to you about the 
second objective. Once more you have 
got to think. The first thing to rid your 
mind of is that the horse enjoys having 
you on his back, for some horses hate it 
intensely, and take the necessary steps to 
remove you. Often they will succeed. 

The other thing of which you must rid 
youi* mind is that you look very fine on 
the horse. You are not nearly so nice 
looking as is the horse, and indeed, he 
looks much better without you. But still, 
if you insist on looking fine and enjoy look- 
ing fine, the only thing to do is to make 



180 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

the horse as happy as possible under the 
circumstances. lie will respond, not 
necessarily because he loves you (you've 
got to win his love, it is very easy and 
worth the effort), but because he has been 
in the stable and enjoys getting out; al- 
though the silly old fellow, after he has 
removed you, will rush with a squeak and 
heels in the air right back to his stable. 
If you are an ass you will thrash him for 
this, and if he has a nasty temper, the next 
time he removes you before returning to 
the stable he may bite and kick you. 

You will find in the riding school that 
the riding master will almost at the begin- 
ing make you ride without reins. The 
horses are trained, and will continue to en- 
circle the school quite nicely. The thing 
to do is to grip your knees well round the 
gee. He doesn 't mind a bit as long as your 
knees grip him and not your heels, upon 
which he suspects the existence of spurs. 

Once more look as if you liked it. Some- 



THE FOUR-LEGGED RECRUIT 181 

times the horse, possibly at a sign from 
the master, will give a little bound into the 
air ; if you have those knees of yours tight, 
you will keep your seat, and the riding 
master will not bother you again. 

The next fearful thing is when you get 
the order to quit stirrups. This is hor- 
rible, and visions of supper on the mantel- 
piece sweep before your eyes. It is going 
to be hard, but the longer you look as if 
you hated it, the longer the instructor will 
keep you there. As soon as a man looks 
happy and unruffled and seems to have a 
good grip, the sergeant will order him to 
retake his stirrups. You'll get a lot of 
riding v^thout stirrups. Q-rip with your 
knees tight, and sit well into the saddle, 
and, above all, have a sunny disposition 
shining from your face. If you groan and 
grumble, or show signs of mutiny, look 
out. It is not advisable. 

When you have to ride with neither stir- 
rups nor reins, the whole thing is awful. 



182 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

But get it over, and you will soon pass out 
of the riding school. 

Now the object of all this training is 
more for the comfort of the horse than 
for you. 

When you can ride well and without 
reins, and at first you will miss them (a 
sign that you cannot ride really), you will 
find that when you get the reins again 
you won't bear on them or tug them unless 
necessary. People who have done little 
riding, and some indeed, who have done 
a lot, depend a great deal upon the reins 
to keep them on their horse. The horse 
has a sensitive mouth, and these are the 
people who produce hard mouths, and 
what is called ^^ spoilt mouths.'' So in 
the army, it is the object of every horse 
master and indeed, every officer to pro- 
duce what is called ^'good hands" among 
his men. If you have '^good hands," and 
they are not easy to develop, you will find 
them a great asset. You will have a lot of 



THE FOUR^LEGGED EECRUIT 183 

capital upon wMch you can draw, for in- 
stance, to hold a horse in easily, or to stop 
him suddenly. It will be a great help in 
your riding, because nothing is more un- 
comfortable than all the time to be hang- 
ing on to a horse who wants to thrust him- 
self forward. 

Riding without stirrups is to give you a 
secure seat. Without stirrups you natur- 
ally seek the most comfortable position, 
and consequently tend to fall in, as much 
as possible, with the motion of the horse. 
This helps a little, and will prevent sad- 
dle galls and sore withers produced by a 
bad rider as well as by an old saddle. 
Still, it is a pretty nasty business alto- 
gether, these first days in the riding school, 
so pass out as soon as you possibly can. 
Having passed out of riding school, if you 
are an Artillery driver or a trooper, you 
will be given a horse or horses. They are 
your own. Look them well over and see 
what can be done. There is an awful lot. 



184 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

At first you will think them rather rotten, 

but in a few weeks' time, if you are useful 

with your fists, no one else will dare to 

say a word against them. Perhaps you 

will find yourself down at the stable at 

nighttime having a yarn and seeing that 

they are well bedded down for the night, 

or that the driver of the horse next to 

yours hasn't pinched all the straw. 

You have all heard of Robert Burns, the 

Scotch poet — he is said to have been a bit 

fond of wild parties, but he was very much 

a man. He started life as a ploughman in 

Scotland, and Carlisle, a famous English 

writer once said that Burns was the finest 

gentleman in Europe. Most people have 

read his little poem ^^To a Mouse": 

Wee, sleekit, couring, tim'roiis beastie, 
Oh, what a panic's in thy breastie! 
Thou need na start awa sae hastie. 

Wi bickerin brattle ! 
I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee 

Wi' murd'rin pattle! 

He could see much to admire and love, 
even in a mouse, and though you will hate 



W 
^ td 

o O 




THE FOUR-LEGGED RECRUIT 185 

mice very thoroughly when you are fin- 
ished with this war, you will be no less 
a man in loving your horse. 

I had a Welsh miner of the roughest 
kind in my battery called Jones. He had 
a fine flow of language. It was pretty 
strong. He always seemed to be destroy- 
ing the beauty of his friends, but he seemed 
to lavish all that was best in his nature on 
his two horses. Even in winter when the 
coats of the horses at the front became 
very thick and untidy, his horse always 
looked smart and clean. Other horses 
died, got kicked, or were cast, but never 
Jones's. His horses were the wheelers of 
the gun, and in moments of emergency 
they were always to be depended upon. On 
long marches, there are always several 
horses who drop out through exhaustion, 
but these two wheelers were always there, 
calm and collected, fat and sleek, going 
along steadily. It was not chance by any 
means that produced this result. Jones 
was a miner, and had had no experience 



186 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

with horses, but he had, however, a great 
big heart and loved his horses more than 
he loved himself. He was also a little 
proud of having the best in the section. 
His harness was always soft and the steel 
work was polished like silver. The brass 
buttons on his tunic were bright as well 
as his hat badge. He did not want to spoil 
the look of the turn-out. You vdll meet 
many drivers like Jones. They are very 
valuable. 

The following remarks are primarily 
meant for Artillery drivers and gunners. 

"When a battery receives orders to be at 
a certain place at a certain hour, it must 
be there as completely as possible. A bat- 
tery may consist of 250 men with the same 
number of horses. Obviously the organ- 
ization that keeps such a force in an effi- 
cient state must be intricate, although it 
is made as simple as possible. 

Towards the soldier a constant stream is 



THE FOUR-LEGGED RECRUIT 187 

always flowing from the base. Under- 
wear, trousers, puttees, caps, boots, and 
socks, all wear out quickly on service. 
Food must also come every day. At the 
front, bread even is supplied ; dainties in 
the way of raisins, prunes, dates, and lots 
of little things; sometimes even candy is 
supplied. 

A similar stream, though simpler, runs 
towards the horse ; picketting ropes, head 
ropes, medical supplies, rugs in winter; 
harness and saddlery, brushes and an im- 
mense supply of food. 

The postal service must also be kept 
going. 

When the battery moves off from a 
bivouac or billet, all these channels of sup- 
ply must be kept open. When two or three 
hundred men settle down for a few days 
they are apt to spread themselves a little. 
Every inch of equipment has its place on 
the transport wagons, gun limbers and 
caissons. 



188 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

During training time there will be a 
good deal of drill in packing everything 
up tightly. The loss of the tiniest bit of 
equipment causes discomfort to some one, 
often to all. During drill after you have 
started on a march fully equipped, the 
whole turn-out will be rigidly inspected, 
and trouble awaits the man who has failed 
to tie everything on tightly. You may then 
do some trotting over rough country and 
the trail of the battery will be watched 
closely. 

If you ever have the luck to march be- 
hind a badly disciplined battery, you w^ill 
find many useful things on the ground, 
canvass water buckets, nosebags, mess tins, 
almost an}i;hing ; even knapsacks contain- 
ing perhaps a bible, a few letters and spare 
underclothing. With difficulty the knap- 
sacks will be returned to their owners, but 
you won't return the other things as they 
are fair spoil. 

It is, therefore, very advisable to know 



THE FOUR-LEGGED RECRUIT 189 

where everything is placed, and to tie it 
there firmly. It is on an occasion like this 
that a Non-Conunissioned Of&cer will 
prove himself. 

A battery works strictly to time. There- 
fore an N.C.O. must judge correctly how 
long it will take to get moving. If he is 
wise he will endeavor to leave one-half 
hour margin at the end. If drill is at- 
tended to carefully, and each man knows 
his work, it will be comparatively simple. 
It means tidyness of mind. Some N.C.O. 's 
rush hither and thither looking wild, curs- 
ing everyone and doing half the work 
themselves. Incidentally an IST.C.O. should 
never work with his hands except when in- 
structing or under special circumstances. 
An officer may work occasionally ; seldom 
an N.C.O. Finally, after much row and 
excitement, perhaps, the column will move 
off. A weight will be removed from every- 
one 's mind and the battery will be at the 
rendezvous where you meet the rest of 



190 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

your brigade in good time. Now comes 
the point. It is essential that every horse, 
every carriage, should arrive at its desti- 
nation at the same time. Of course, acci- 
dents occur. 

On a long march you will never move 
out of a good walk. This will be the in- 
tention, based on knowledge and experi- 
ence, of your commanding officer. But 
certain JST.C.O.'s will foil him in this laud- 
able purpose. 

All horses cannot w^alk at the same rate, 
so the CO. in front will choose a walk 
suitable to the slowest horse. This is 
obvious. 

Now some horses are lazy, also some 
drivers, and their teams Avill slowly but 
surely make the distance between their 
team and the carriage in front too great. 
It may get to twenty yards. A fault has 
been committed here. First, by the drivers 
in not making their horses walk out, sec- 



THE FOUR-LEGGED RECRUIT 191 

ondly, by the N.C.O. in not insisting upon 
their walking out. 

The N.C.O. may order the team to trot 
up into place. The team behind will then 
have to trot double the distance and the 
horses at the very end of the column may 
have to gallop. It is a case of compound 
interest. This is very bad for all and re- 
sults in certain horses falling out with ex- 
haustion and their carriage getting lost, 
certainly losing its place in its own section. 
The real remedy for lost space is always to 
make the horses walk out well. This can 
be done without making them jog. There 
are halts every now and then during which 
time the wagon can advance sedately up 
into its place if it has fallen behind. If 
a horse shows signs of exhaustion, and 
these are easily detected, if you are an 
N.C.O., change him. Put one of your sig- 
nallers' horses or one of your spares in 
his place for a few hours. 

The important thing is to see that the 
work of dividing the labor is perfected. 



192 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

Watch the traces in front of you if you 
are a centre or wheel driver. If they hang 
in festoons the pair in front are slacking. 
Everything will depend on the N.C.O. in 
charge keeping his eyes open. 

It is important to see that your horses 
are well watered on the march. At the 
end of every hour, there is a ten minute 
halt. Your part of the column may be 
near a creek, pond or well, and in this 
case the horses can be easily watered, but 
in many another there will be no water 
about. Therefore, during the many little 
halts on the way, the men riding on cais- 
sons should have a bucket ready to run 
into the nearest house to get some water. 
This can be worked out easily, and you 
must remember that nothing is better for 
the horse than plenty of water. It is a 
fallacy to believe that to water a horse 
when hot and sweating is fatal for him. 
He'd never get watered on service at all, 
if this were true. 



THE FOUR-LEGGED RECRUIT 193 

When watering a horse during these 
short halts don't take his bit out. The 
order to march comes quickly, and youVe 
got to get that bit in again. It may be dif- 
jficult, and meanwhile the team in front 
has moved forward and you will delay the 
whole column. 

Marching becomes weary work, and 
there will be a good long halt for feeding 
yourself and horses;. If the cooks are 
well trained and decent fellows, they will 
soon have coffee or tea ready, and there 
will be plenty of time to run into the near- 
est store and buy things. This is possible 
during the midday halt. Don't do it with- 
out permission during the hourly halt. It 
makes such a scramble to get back, and 
you'll have to run to catch up with your 
column. 

On the march, things will be as easy and 
comfortable as possible. You may sing, 
and better still, smoke to your heart's con- 
tent, even though sitting on a caisson full 

13 



194 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

of H.E. It is sealed pretty tight so there 
is little need for worry. Of course, it may 
be different in your army, but in my bat- 
tery on the march the men could do what 
they pleased within reason. They could 
always smoke. 

If every man uses his brains a little, re- 
fusing to be a serf, but remembering that 
he is an important part of the battery, 
things will go very smoothly. 

If you can remember the tips about the 
horses, they are important, and the re- 
marks about fixing equipments, at the end 
of the march all will go smoothly and 
you'll soon be dismissed for the night. 
There will be the proper number of 
picketing ropes, there will be enough 
head ropes and enough water buckets, but 
if these things have been lost the work 
will be doubled, and the whole night will 
be spent muddling, the sergeant swearing, 
the men getting upset and dismissal post- 
poned. It is all quite simple and it is you 



THE FOUR-LEGGED RECRUIT 195 

—the soldier — ^who can make things easy. 

All these remarks are based upon ex- 
perience, and I predict that the best part 
of your nature will sympathize with the 
six horses drawing you along. They get 
very hot and tired, more tired than you 
will. There is so much that is fine in a 
good horse. He hates war more than you 
do. 'AH I have told you here can be found 
in a drill book, but for your own sake, 
I want to rub it in. 

At the front the horses of the battery 
are kept well back, generally out of the 
range of the ordinary gun. Unfortunately, 
in Northern France and Flanders the 
ground gets very wet and muddy, and it is 
almost impossible to make the horses any- 
where near comfortable during the winter 
months. Of course, we try very hard and 
endeavor to steal all the material possible 
to give them some sort of shelter, but to 
make an adequate shelter for nearly 200 
horses without any material to speak of 



196 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

except what we can pick up is very diffi- 
cult. However, we try. We get all the 
bricks possible from the ruins around, and 
endeavor to make firm standings for the 
horses, but even with plenty of bricks, the 
mud oozes through, and the place is very 
nasty and damp. My battery sent back a 
large number of wagons to a forest near, 
and there got masses of saplings and 
brushwood. With these we tried to make 
good shelters for the horses. The great 
difficulty was the roof. We tried in a poor 
sort of way to thatch it with straw, but it 
leaked hopelessly. We could not get 
enough straw. 

Although in France the climate is never 
very cold, it makes up for this by drizzl- 
ing for days and days. The lot of the 
average horse becomes almost unbearable, 
so we try our hardest to train the men to 
look after them with care. Mud abscesses 
are very prevalent, and all sorts of little 
complaints develop. The horses grow 



THE FOUR-LEGaED RECRUIT 197 

hair like the fleece of the sheep ; sometimes 
it is four inches long, and one result is 
that lice abound. You will have to watch 
out for this very carefully because noth- 
ing makes a horse more uncomfortable 
than the constant irritation caused by the 
bites of these insects. The thing to do is 
to report the matter as soon as possible to 
the sergeant. There is much that you can 
do yourself to make the horses comfort- 
able. Even if it is impossible for the bat- 
tery as a whole to supply adequate cover 
for the horses, there will be a lot of little 
things that you can do yourself. I hope 
you will think it over very carefully. In 
spite of what one hears and imagines the 
horse is still an important member of a 
division, and deserves, from both the mili- 
tary and Christian viewpoint, careful 
looking after. 

Never trot too fast at the front, espe- 
cially in France. Nothing is worse for a 
horse than to trot at a quick rate on a 



198 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

hard road on service. Of course, lie will 
want to go fast. To you it seems that he 
is enjoying himself, and indeed, he may 
be, but take it from me, there is nothing 
w^orse for him in the world. Another thing 
that is very bad for a horse during service 
is to canter him on a hard road, indeed, 
on anything but a grass track. I know 
you will see people doing it and people 
who ought to know better, but ask one of 
your mounted officers in the regular army 
and he will tell you. If there is one thing 
a mounted regular officer does know well 
it is horse management. A battery with 
good horses always seems to do the best 
shooting. This is denied by the officers 
in heavy Artillery units, but it is a safe 
thing to put your money on the battery 
with good, fat, clean animals. 



CHAPTER XI 
A CURSE OP WAR 

During your service at the front you 
will most certainly get an opportunity to 
visit London or Paris, as such visits are 
generally easily arranged. They always 
seemed to discourage our visiting Paris. 
I expect you will mostly find yourself in 
London, where you will feel more at home 
and will probably meet more friends. I 
would like to give you a few straight tips. 
These tips will apply to more than one 
part of England, and theoretically to 
Prance. 

Near Cambridge, the University town 
in England, there are several large hos- 
pitals well out in the country. I believe 
there are three. One is close to a village 
called Cherry Hinton, a very pretty name 
—but the men in these hospitals are not 

199 



200 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

suffering froan wounds inflicted by the 
Germans, nor lias their disease been caused 
by exposure to all sorts of weather. They 
seem very healthy and well, and they all 
look thoroughly decent fellows. An old 
lecturer friend of mine is one of the chap- 
lains, and during my leave from the front 
I went out to see him. We walked through 
the enormous encampment and saw scores 
of Tommies from every part of the world. 
The thing that struck me most was the 
innocence displayed in their faces. Some, 
of course, looked rough necks and pretty 
nasty, but the great majority were very 
young and good looking. One learns to 
size up a soldier and I must admit that 
these fellows looked the very best type. 
There w^re sentries round this hospital 
and a guard at the gate. The men went out 
for walks accompanied by a chaplain. One 
chaplain took a party into Cambridge and 
they had tea there, but the beautiful souls 
of the townsmen of Cambridge were 



A CURSE OF WAB 201 

shocked and letters were written to the 
papers — the walks were then confined to 
the country. Men stay but a month in this 
hospital yet it is always full. I noticed 
that the men were fine physical speci- 
mens, the sorts of fellows whose children 
would be a credit to any nation. However, 
through carelessness, inexperience, some- 
times mere viciousness, often through 
loneliness, they had pretty successfully 
managed to turn themselves into social 
lepers. The whole thing is pretty rotten 
for everybody. 

In England we all love the fellows who 
are fighting for our country, and we want 
to make them as happy as possible, espe- 
cially while they are home. You will ad- 
mit that it is a little difficult for us in re- 
gard to the fellows in the hospital near 
Cherry Hinton. Of course, you know and 
I know, that a fellow suffering from this 
disease is regarded with good natured and 
almost admiring pity. People always give 



202 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

a laugh when they talk about it. There 
seems something almost sporting about it. 
Get it yourself, however, and see how you 
feel ! If there is anything of the man in 
you, you will spend some fairly uncom- 
fortable hours thinking about it. It nearly 
sends some men off their heads. 

When you get to England intending to 
spend a few cheerful days, remember that 
the country has been for nearly three years 
in the grip of a horrible war. The people 
have so far born it well, but war is a hor- 
rible thing, and brings all kinds of evil in 
its train. 

When the war first broke out thousands 
and thousands of our best men joined up 
at once, and soon the country was over- 
run with men in khaki. There was a great 
burst of enthusiasm throughout the coun- 
try, and the most enthusiastic were the 
women. Why is it that women are so 
keen on men in uniforms? They always 
are, you know. 




THE AUTHOR AND JACK 



A CURSE OF WAR 203 

The women in England were no excep- 
tion. They admired and loved the sol- 
diers: they looked so fine in their nni- 
f orms, and were they not going off to fight 
the Germans ! Women have little of the 
glory of war, but have to put up with all 
the suffering. 

And so they admired and loved the sol- 
diers. And now comes the tragedy. Many 
silly girls, I am afraid many thousands, 
fell at once for the soldiers, and sadly 
enough, they have fallen very low since. 

Crowds and crowds of girls f omid them- 
selves earning quite large sums of money 
and were able to go out at night and have 
a good time. They were sometimes much 
richer than the soldiers. The men who 
would normally be their natural sweet- 
hearts were either called up or killed. 
Soldiers, perhaps, were billeted in their 
village for perhaps a few weeks at a time. 
No one really meant any harm. The girl 
felt patriotic and the man felt lonely, and 



204 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

the rough life in the barracks made Viitti 
appreciate female society — the war feel- 
ing in the air — it is the old story of every 
war. The girls having plenty of money 
had to spend it, and going to the movies 
and becoming romantically thrilled, it was 
quite easy to make friends with the sol- 
diers present. Perhaps afterwards they 
went into the nearest bar — so it went — the 
soldier was ordered to another town, 
and she was left. Anyway, take it from 
me, and I know; England is in a pretty 
funny state just now. There are a fear- 
ful number of women not necessarily 
professional women of a certain class 
going about in England, who have become 
quite unmoral and very kindhearted. 

There ought to be a big danger mark 
on them, but there is not. As it is, they 
are very engaging, for the English girl 
has a fine, pretty color, and she talks in 
a very refined way. She will naturally 
like you very much, and will be very sym- 



A CURSE OF WAR 205 

pathetic. You may think yourself the only 
man she has ever loved. You are not. 
You may think she is innocent and pure. 
She may be. You must not think I am 
condemning my own race. If you are 
lucky, you will be properly introduced to 
many decent English girls, whom you will 
like very much, but the difficulty is to meet 
them. The girl I am warning you about 
is the child you may pick up, and who will 
tell you an innocent story of her own good- 
ness. Poor little devil, she is having a 
pretty rotten time of it herself ! 

It may happen that you are alone in 
London some night, perhaps you have 
been alone for several days ; unfortunately 
this is sometimes the experience of our 
oversea troops. The afternoon passes all 
right. London presents many possibili- 
ties for amusement during the day. You 
have dinner in a large hotel, and see 
crowds of other soldiers with their families 
burning incense to them, and you envy 



206 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

them. 'After dinner you go to a theatre 
vainly hoping to see someone whom you 
know. However, as you come out feeling 
very lonely, longing perhaps, to get back 
to your friends in France, a very pretty 
little girl lets you know that she is willing 
to be friendly. You respond and take her 
to supper. She lets you know that she is 
a very straight sort of girl, and you feel 
very grateful for her company. In Amer- 
ica you have learned to respect women, 
and you find the little lady very charming. 
An English woman, you know, under- 
stands the art well of making a man happy. 
She does not expect you to amuse her. 
She feels it her duty to amuse you, and 
she will succeed. 

You go off to Brighton with her, still 
convinced that she is a decent girl and 
that this is her first escapade. At Brighton 
you feel a bit reckless and the damage may 
be done. 

Now some men will regard this as a 



A CURSE OF WAR 207 

fascinating and delightful experience, but 
there are many men, and you know that 
what I am saying is true, who definitely 
keep themselves straight imtil marriage. 
You have a good time and don't think 
very often of the girl to whom you are en- 
gaged in America and, of course, the little 
English girl is really quite a nice little per- 
son. She does not swear or tell unpleas- 
ant stories. She has quite nice table man- 
ners. She doesn't ask for money, and is 
very grateful for presents — ^but if you 
think that you are the first man that she 
has lived with you are a fool. As a mat- 
ter of fact, she is merely a vampire, one 
of a class produced by the presence in 
Europe of thousands of lonely soldiers 
with plenty of money to spend. Our home 
soldiers are not rich enough to attract her. 
If she had foul manners and a flashy ap- 
pearance there would be no need to warn 
you about her. As it is she dresses taste- 



208 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

fully and quietly, and sometimes does not 
even use a powder pu:ff. 

I remember at Loos, a very young of- 
ficer about nineteen came to our battery 
as a reinforcement. He was sent on an im- 
portant job and carried it off so well that 
lie established a reputation for coolness 
and courage. He went off somewhere for 
a course of instruction on signalling, and 
after two weeks returned. He accom- 
panied me down to the trenches. We were 
shelled on the way, not an unusual experi- 
ence, and to my astonishment that boy 
seemed very worried. His nervous feel- 
ing was easily communicated to me and 
we started to walk very fast, and finally 
ran all the w^ay down to the trenches like 
a couple of idiots. There is never any 
point in running behind the lines at the 
front when you are out of sight of the 
enemy and merely fear a chance shell. The 
next day I was in hospital, and a few days 
afterwards this same ofi&cer came into the 



A CURSE OF WAR 209 

ward. I took him to be a visitor, but lie 
told me lie was a patient. 

He had been to Brighton with a very 
pretty little English girl quite as I have 
described. 

We commenced the journey to the base 
and it was pretty horrible for that fellow 
when the nurses asked for his disease. I 
was glad when he left us at Boulogne and 
went to the specific hospital where male 
nurses could look after him. Now, you 
will understand why he was in that ner- 
vous condition at Loos. That sort of thing 
takes all the manliness out of a fellow. 

He told me all about it. He had lived 
in Canada. The temptation there had not 
been great. The loneliness of London had 
done it. 

It is no good my warning you about 
the professional woman of a certain class. 
She is less dangerous. They exist in 
America and you know about them and 
have decided upon your line of action. It 

14 



210 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

may be possible, though difficult, for you to 
have a really good time with a girl you 
may meet promiscuously, but look out — 
she is more clever than you. London has 
become pretty terrible. 

At the front while you are in reserve 
permission will be given you to visit the 
surrounding towns. In these there are 
estaminets or inns where light beer and 
coffee is sold. The danger here is less 
subtle, but if yofu are enticed into the 
back room keep well away from the half- 
clothed, filthy hag that may lurk there. 
She is terrible and dangerous, though not 
a siren by any means. 

I have given you some straight tips, try 
and take them. You are the father of 
future Americans. Don't sew foul im- 
pulses in your race. Give your children 
a fair chance. We are pretty bad in 
Europe, you know. You would be the 
same with war at your doors for three 
years. Your race is made up of our very 



A CURSE OF WAR 211 

best. Don't give us the fearful responsi- 
bility of ruining you and your nation. 
Forgive this preaching ! 

Eemember that when a man goes to 
fight the old savage impulses come up in 
his mind. In a way he is fighting for his 
women. Pon't think too hardly about 
this thing, and don't blame us too much. 
You are not a baby but a man, and it is 
up to you to look after yourself ; in any 
case you are warned. Most men look with 
kindly eyes upon impurity — a young man 
must sow his wild oats and all that sort of 
thing. I guess you will have to think the 
matter out for yourself. 

If your government could send over or 
establish in England or France a bureau 
of decent women, not old and not too 
^^good," who would arrange to introduce 
you to decent girls who were not neces- 
sarily members of the T.W.C.A., it might 
be a good idea. The trouble is that the 



212 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

average man suspects the society formed 
for his good. It often is a bit dull. 

It is very easy for me to advise you, it 
is very difficult, perhaps, for you to follow 
the advice. Possibly you will not want to. 

I am really writing to the men who 
want to return to their wives and sweet- 
hearts unharmed by war. Perhaps it 
sounds sentimental. We used to call talk 
like this ^^ pi jaw'' at Cambridge, and only 
expected to get it from our chaplains and 
tutors whom we may have suspected of 
infirmities of their own. Still, it is good 
advice and worth taking, so I put it to 
you. You Americans are figthing the 
Germans not for your existence, perhaps, 
as are we, but possibly for a higher pur- 
pose. They have outraged your sense of 
decency, of manliness. You may march 
to Berlin; you may die fighting for your 
country; you may become a general and 
the hero of your nation, but if you have 
introduced to your children foul impulses 



A CURSE OF WAR 213 

and impurity you are a beaten man. The 
world seems to have been designed for 
man. The flowers do their best to re- 
produce their loveliness on the earth, yet 
somehow or other we don't bother. Per- 
haps the war in which you are fighting is 
going to be the great school master. If 
so, all its fearful sacrifices will be worth 
while then. 



CHAPTER XII 

RATS, PETS, AND OTHERS 

You will find that you are not the only- 
kind of animal that occupies the trenches, 
although you are possibly the only uncom- 
fortable one. There are thousands and 
thousands of rats, that differ from your 
charming small stable rats who disappear 
at your approach. They are as big as 
cats and almost as tame. It is safe to say 
that for every four yards of trench you 
walk along, you will see at night time at 
least two rats, and they are in no hurry to 
get away ; in a heavy sort of manner they 
scuttle among the sandbags, but that is all. 
It would require a bold kind of fox terrier 
to attack them. One shudders to think 
what they live on. Perhaps as scavengers 
they have some use. In the trenches dur- 
ing an intensive bombardment when the 

214 



A CURSE OF WAR 215 

parapet and dugouts are getting knocked 
about they make quite a big din with their 
squeaking. 

At one time men used to keep dogs in 
the trenches, but it was discovered that the 
Germans were using dogs to carry dis- 
patches and so it was forbidden to keep 
them. This was very unfortunate for the 
soldiers, as, as a class, they are notori- 
ously fond of dogs. An officer may have a 
perfectly good animal devoted to him, but 
once he takes him to barracks he soon 
shows a fickleness that is most regrettable. 
Dogs seem to love soldiers. Possibly, it 
is because where there is a crowd of men 
feeding there is also a good deal of waste. 
Besides, they have the habit of appreciat- 
ing manliness, and there is no more manly 
creature alive than a good soldier. 

I must tell you about Henri d'Armen- 
tieres. Henri's father was a Brussels 
Griffin who belonged to some officer. The 
Brussels Griffin was killed one day by a 



216 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

German shell. It would be impossible to 
imagine the ancestry of Henri's mother, 
by name Finette. However, she was a 
charming little fat dog who lived in a 
small estaminet about a mile and a half 
from the front line trenches. Henri had 
about seven brothers and sisters, none 
of whom were alike : there were pups with 
woolly hair and pups with short hair. I 
happened to be passing the estaminet one 
day when they were all playing in the yard 
with their mother. I fell very much in 
love with a little woolly-haired one, and 
asked Madame if she would let me have 
him when he was a little older. She 
agreed. A few weeks after, I went to the 
estaminet and asked for the pup, proffer- 
ing at the same minute about $1.25. 
Madame at once searched in her pocket 
for change. She evidently did not value 
the pup very highly. However, I wished 
her to keep the five francs. Henri proved 
to be of much more value to me than many 




They humanize the front, so you had better try to have one 



RATS, PETS, AND OTHERS 217 

hundreds of francs. He went with me 
everywhere; to the observation post, to 
the trenches, on long marches, and always 
slept in a small cracker box beside me. 
Most of his day was spent in the pocket 
of my tunic. Often on horseback he was 
there. He was very well known at that 
part of the front. He was too small to 
wander about very much by himself, so it 
was difficult for my men to win his love. 
However, Henri had a passion for a cat 
which belonged to one of my gun puts, and 
some days I would allow him to spend 
the day with the cat and they would have 
a glorious time together, rolling about per- 
fectly happy. I remember once taking 
this kitten up to my dugout to spend half 
a day with Henri. They both rolled and 
played about for nearly an hour, and then 
getting tired they decided to sleep. As I 
sat writing at my table I watched them. 
Henri, of course, got into his cracker box 
which was made comfortable by a cholera 



218 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

belt knitted by a loving relation, and a 
scarf knitted by another. The kitten had 
nowhere to sleep, but she promptly made 
herself comfortable on top of Henri and 
drowsed off. Henri feeling himself to be 
getting suffocated stirred gently and 
gradually worked his way until he was on 
top. Then the kitten, feeling herself to 
be too hot, worked her way until she got 
on top, and so this circular movement went 
on for nearly an hour. 

It is a great help at the front to have 
some sort of pet, something to keep you 
from being too lonely at nights. Some 
soldiers, of course, are mounted and have 
their horse to look after, upon whom they 
always lavish quite a lot of affection. 

I must tell you another story about 
dogs at the front. When it was discovered 
that the Germans were then using dogs to 
carry messages between the trenches — ex- 
actly to where these messages were sent T 



RATS, PETS, AND OTHERS 219 

am unable to state, but possibly there were 
spies living behind the lines — the thing 
had to be met, so an order was sent around 
to all officers commanding, asking them if 
they had any men with a knowledge of 
French who understood dogs. The dis- 
patch certainly looked a little bit comical. 
In my brigade there was a rather eccentric 
officer on duty at headquarters when this 
dispatch arrived. He replied that they 
had no men who understood French, but 
they had a cat who could speak Persian. 
I dare not tell you the reply that came 
from divisional headquarters. However, 
it is still possible for men in the Artillery 
and other arms of the service who don't 
actually occupy front-line trenches to keep 
dogs, cats, and other pets. 

You will sometimes see a battery going 
along the road with, at every section of the 
column, a certain number of dogs who 
stick to their own part of the column, ig- 
noring everything and everybody that 



220 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

they meet on the way. You will see how 
attentive the men are to them, picking 
them up and carrying them on the cais- 
sons when they show signs of fatigue. 
You will be possibly astonished when you 
see a battery going from one position to 
another: in trench warfare one spends 
quite a long time in the same position, 
and consequently a good deal of material 
is collected. There may be tables, some- 
times chairs and lots of little things that 
add to the comfort of the men are gathered 
together, and, whenever possible, the of- 
ficers try to carry these extras. The re- 
sult is that they endeavor to pick up as 
many old wagons as possible, and, having 
got the mechanic on the wheeler of the 
battery to repair them, they go along quite 
nicely. At any rate, they are very useful. 
You see, just behind the trenches there are 
crowds and crowds of farm houses. Some- 
times the shed where the wagons are kept 
is on the side of the farm away from the 




HER RUINED HOME AS LEFT BY THE ENEMY 
It is difficult for this poor French woman to understand 



BATS, PETS, AND OTHERS 221 

enemy. The result is that often a wagon 
escapes injury. But even if the wheel is 
smashed to bits, it is not difficult to re- 
place. This is really harmless looting, be- 
cause sooner or later the whole farm, in- 
cluding the wagons, will be demolished. 

I remember once seeing a family 
brougham going along behind a battery, 
all the windows smashed and part of the 
hood knocked in, and a soldier sitting on 
the box driving a light artillery horse in 
the shafts. The inside was crammed with 
all sorts of strange things. A battery on 
the march at the front does not look very 
dignified — even the dogs have a rakish 
appearance. 

Although at home, a dog is the very best 
sort of pet to have, in the army he gets a 
bit spoilt. It seems that he has gen- 
erally too many masters, and as they all 
feed him and all make a fuss over him, he 
grows to regard all soldiers, especially 
privates, as his lords and masters. He 



222 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

seems to follow anyone, almost. Of 
course, there are exceptions, but the gen- 
eral kind of dog does not appear to mind 
what battery or what company he follows. 
When you get him young, perhaps it is 
different. Of course, in barracks, he will 
be faithful to the men living in the bar- 
racks, but anything in khaki seems to 
attract him. 

Goats make very good pets, especially 
billy goats. Nannys are fickle. We had a 
fine billy goat in my battery. We got him 
one day out on a route march, as a gift 
from the widow of an old sergeant major. 
He had to be fed with a bottle, and soon 
grew attached to all the men in the bat- 
tery. They never seemed to appreciate 
him as much as one would have liked, and 
unfortunately the men in the next battery 
(**A" Battery, it was called), took a vio- 
lent fancy to him, and Billy used to spend 
a lot of his time with them. He always, 
however, came home. He developed a 



RATS, PETS, AND OTHERS 223 

few rather poor tricks, but still lie was a 
very good sort of goat, and we rather 
liked him. Perhaps he was a little too 
fond of officers. The night we left Eng- 
land I told one of my sergeants not to for- 
get Billy. I went in a different trans- 
port from the others, and when we ar- 
rived in Prance I asked for Billy. They 
had forgotten him. I met the colonel dur- 
ing the day and he told me that he had 
seen Billy roaming about before he had 
left, and had ordered *^A" battery to 
bring him on. This was a little unfor- 
tunate, because I feared ^^A'' battery 
would claim him; still, it was good to 
know that the colonel had ordered them 
to bring him. When we finally came 
across ^^A" battery, sure enough, Billy 
was with them. They begged me not to 
take him away, pointing out rightly enough 
that my men could not have appreciated 
him very much if they could forget him. 
As a matter of fact, the wet canteen had 



224 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

been visited rather too often by my gun- 
ners that last night. I admitted sadly 
that they spoke truly, but I wanted that 
goat. I got him all right, but he was al- 
ways disappearing and was always found 
with** A" battery. 

Finally, it was stated that **A'' battery 
was leaving for Salonica, so I decided to 
watch Billy. The night before they left, 
I went along to say good-bye to the of- 
ficers I knew among them, and incident- 
ally to find Billy who was missing. They 
swore that he was not there. I asked 
leave to search for him. This was refused 
at first, but after threats and bribes, they 
allowed me to search, the men meanwhile 
looking comically annoyed. Finally, I 
found him behind a great heap of straw 
in the barn, and a soldier also hidden with 
him keeping him from jumping about. I 
almost said, **Take the blooming goat," 
but I rather loved him. There was almost 
a mild mutiny over it, and my two men 



EATS, PETS, AND OTHERS 225 

had some unpleasant things said to them 
as they carried Billy out of the farm yard. 
I got him home and told the sentries to 
guard him well through the night. Do 
you know, those men of Battery '^A" 
broke through the sentries and carried 
Billy off. In the morning when I heard 
of it I rushed along on a bicycle to their 
position, but they had gone. Billy is 
probably now in Monastir and I must say 
that the men of Battery *^A'' deserved 
to have him. 

The next day, when taking the battery 
out for a route march, we were in reserve, 
I saw a charming young goat grazing on 
the side of a big ditch. The woman re- 
fused to sell him until tempted with ten 
francs, exactly five times his value, and we 
took the goat home. Unfortunately, she 
was a Nanny, and the men promptly called 
her Gertie. For a time she was a success, 
but she developed a love for plum and 
apple jam. The men don't seem to en- 

15 



226 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

joy jam as much as they might and never 
take all the jam from a can, hence, Gertie 
was always getting her nose stuck in jam 
tins. In any case her nose always looked 
unpleasant and janmiy. She lived with 
the horses at the wagon line mostly, but 
one day we brought her up to the battery 
position. It was two days before a battle, 
and Gertie spent the night in the kitchen 
of an old farmhouse unoccupied and in 
ruins. Unfortunately the major had 
stored his dispatches for the battle in this 
room and there were also a munber of 
newspapers lying about. Gertie had fin- 
ished eating the newspapers and was just 
starting to eat the secret dispatches when 
I found her. The major looked as though 
he would have grown hysterical if she had 
eaten them. She was promptly sent back 
to the wagon line. She was fickle — very. 
First she went off with the Purham light 
infantry and was rescued, then she eloped 
with the Dublin fusiliers, and that is all 



RATS, PETS, AND OTHERS 227 

I know about her. Gertie was not a 
success. 

Cats are not bad things to have in gun 
positions. Unfortunately they are like 
the world, they laugh with you but refuse 
definitely to do any weeping. We had a 
cat in Number Four gun pit. It was the 
one I used to borrow to amuse Henri 
d'Armentieres. She was most faithful to 
Number Four gim pit in spite of the ef- 
forts of Number One to win her affection. 
When the winter came on Number Four 
got a bit damp and that cat, she was only 
a kitten, too, developed a love for Number 
Three which was dry. Number Three 
got damp and Number Two also leaked, 
and finally she arrived at Number One. 
Here she had many admirers and was very 
well fed. She refused to recognize any 
of her old friends. Finally, all the gun 
pits were a bit damp, and that cat went off 
to live with the lady in the farmhouse. I 
lost faith in her when she left Number 



228 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

Four, because the men had so arranged 
things for her that she could not get wet ; 
there was not very much water. She 
could have spent an interesting time float- 
ing on the floor boards. 

Hence don't expect a cat to be a faith- 
ful pet when you get to the front. 

When we were ordered to go to Ypres, 
the most unpleasant part of the line, I felt 
that it was time for Henri to go to Eng- 
land. I got leave at this time and arrived 
at Dover with Henri stuffed inside my 
pocket on account of the customs' people. 

I also hid him when registering at the 
Hotel Cecil, and fortunately the floor 
housekeeper, a beautiful woman of thirty- 
five in black silk, fell head over heels in 
love with him, and he spent many happy 
days there while I was enjoying myself 
in London. He was only about ten inches 
long and looked like a miniature collie: 
nothing like a pom. Finally, I took him 
home to the country. Now Henri had 



RATS, PETS, AND OTHERS 229 

missed something — what, he could not 
understand. He did not seem quite happy. 
Incidentally I had put aside my uniform 
when in London, so Henri was meeting 
only civilians. I was sitting in the railway 
coach when we stopped at a small station 
and a large Artillery sergeant major got 
into the carriage. Henri gave one leap 
across the coach and into his lap, land 
looking across apologetically at me curled 
up and went to sleep. It was the khaki, 
of course, and the scent of a soldier. 
Finally, I got home and my other dogs 
looked askance at the funny little stranger, 
but he rushed at them in such a friendly 
way that they had to succumb at once to 
his charms. A badly bred, but gentle- 
minded rabbit hunter of a fox terrier of 
mine, fell badly in love with him and as 
Henri attacked him with mock fury he 
would roll over and pretend to be quite 
beaten and finished up. 

He slept in the biscuit box at my bed 



230 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

that night, as he had always done at the 
front, and I feared what would happen in 
the morning, for Jimmy, the badly-bred 
fox terrier, called by a lewd, fellow at 
Cambridge a ^*sea otter," always arrived 
with the servant in the morning to spend 
at least half an hour sleeping soundly at 
my feet while I mustered up courage to 
get up and face the day. Jinnny had al- 
ways done this before the war, and any 
other dogs approaching got half killed. 
To Jimmy's surprise he found Henri in 
his biscuit box beside the bed. He looked 
furious; but Henri yawned, opened his 
eyes, looked pleased, made one rush at 
Jimmy, and Jimmy just had to give in. 
Finally, they both rolled up and went to 
sleep. 

Jaggers, another mongrel now ap- 
proached, thinking that sleeping at the 
foot of the bed had become a privilege for 
all dogs got an awful bite on the leg for 
his pains and went yelping off. The 



RATS, PETS, AND OTHERS 231 

next day I had to leave Henri and return 
to Ypres. My room was cleaned and left 
for my next ^4eave," if any. During the 
day Henri was missed and a search was 
made for him. He could not be found for 
several hours, and then a maid going into 
my room found him whimpering on the 
bed. Poor, wee fellow, he loved soldiers 
and found it impossible to live away from 
them. He got ill, and in spite of all the 
dog doctors in London, he died. 

I am afraid that we are a bit cracked in 
regard to dogs at our house, but every- 
body loved Henri, witnessed by the fact 
that whenever we were in reserve and had 
to move about, the children at the farm 
used to weep when ^^Le Tres beau petit 
chien" went off. 

If you are in the Infantry you will cer- 
tainly have a large Billy goat, massively 
clothed in woolly hair, wearing a big brass 
collar; but I guess he will only be for 



232 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

show and far too conceited to think 
much of. 

Incidentally, although "^o Man's 
Land'' is such an unpleasant place, I have 
heard partridges calling at night there. 

One would think that dogs would be 
useful to keep the rats down in the 
trenches, but I am not sure but that the 
dogs would have a pretty difficult time 
of it. In any case, they are forbidden. 
Police dogs alone are allowed to remain 
with soldiers, and my Henri was registered 
as a police dog. 



CHAPTEE XIII 

THE FOLKS AT HOME 

Just before boarding the transport you 
may be told that from then on there will 
be no more need for postage stamps. This 
will entice you to send home postcards and 
letters. It can be taken as a certainty that 
you wiU put at the top — ' ' On active ser- 
vice." It will be your first thrill. It will 
also be a little exciting for those at home. 
They will think that it augurs well for 
your future attendance to correspondence. 
I wonder if you will attend to this thing. 
Writing home, I mean. Of course, you'll 
continue writing to the young lady, but 
your mother. ,What about her? The 
young lady will be glad, of course, to get 
your letters, but if you don't write she will 
have much to console her. There are lots 
of soldiers about ! But if you forget your 

233 



234 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

mother, she'll have nothing to help her 
to bear a fearful lot of pain. 

You know, during your absence, she'll 
spend all the time worrying. She has al- 
ways loved you, but her love has increased 
since you became a soldier. It always 
does. Of course, her ideas of warfare may 
be largely made up of pictures of the Bat- 
tle of Gettysburg; she will see you every 
night with a bandage around your head, 
or, lying wounded and thirsty on the bat- 
tlefield. 

The very ordinaryness of warfare will 
prevent your realizing this. Then your 
father. He's got, in spite of his pros- 
perous and cheery exterior, just the same 
amount of love. He has never been able 
to express it. The full expression of af- 
fection by a plain man has become impos- 
sible these days. Consequent!}^, he is going 
to worry even more. 

Try and think of those at home. I know 
at times you'll be having a perfectly hor- 



THE FOLKS AT HOME 235 

rible time. Of course, you will; but at 
home they will be having even worse. You 
have something to do ; something to occupy 
your thoughts : they have nothing, except 
to worry. Now if you can get a letter off 
as often as possible, it is going to help an 
awful lot. Put in something for the 
mother and something for the father each 
time. She 11 want to hear about your food ; 
about the socks she sent you ; whether you 
wear the cholera belt. You may use the 
cholera belt as a knee pad, the trench hel- 
met, for cleaning your rifle, but don't tell 
her that. I remember in the winter, once 
seeing a Highland soldier with a cholera 
belt around each knee. They are nice and 
elastic. As a matter of fact, during the 
winter, you'll appreciate anything woolly. 
It is difficult, however, to carry much. 
Things get lost or pinched. Tell her about 
the little things, about your food, about 
Madame, and how the French woman in 
back billets washes your things. To the 



236 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

father imaginary thrills ought to be the 
line. Write to him as you think warfare 
ought to be. Try and hide from him the 
fact that it is like playing in a game of 
football in which there is no referee and 
the other side can't be trusted. 

Tour letters will all be censored, so at- 
tend to the things that ought not be writ- 
ten. A growling letter never gets through. 
Do not fear to write openly and honestly. 
Your officer censors them, but as he has 
from 20 to 30 letters to read every night, 
he never thinks of you as a person — ^merely 
as a confounded nuisance for writing so 
much. He'd be relieved to escape the job. 

You will find that even during a battle, 
if it is not a very big one, the mail arrives 
every day ; also a few newspapers. 

Sometimes you have private things to 
write about. This need is met by the sup- 
ply of special envelopes which go to the 
base to be censored. All the letters would 
go to the base, but to do it quickly, there 



THE FOLKS AT HOME 237 

would have to be an enormous staff. As 
it is, an officer gets sent into his billet 
about 20 or 30 letters. They are left open. 
He glances at the beginning and the sig- 
nature. He has then a pretty good idea 
what sort of a letter it is. It is not very 
often that one has to stop a letter. It is 
forbidden to make complaints usually, and 
you will admit that this is right. Perhaps 
rations have not arrived in time, and Pri- 
vate Smith, feeling a bit tired and hungry, 
writes off to Mr. Smith, who is a senator. 
Senator Smith will talk of it in the Senate. 

Yes, you will often feel furious with 
the powers that be, but, an army is an 
autocracy, you're a soldier, and you have 
just got to put up with it. 

Criticism of superior officers, although 
an interesting occupation and one prac- 
ticed by many, is a sure way of causing 
your letter never to reach its destination. 
They'll object to your talking about forth- 
coming battles. They object to the nam- 



238 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

ing of places. People still persist in put- 
ting dots under letters in the ordinary let- 
ter home, spelling out the names of towns 
and villages. 

I Ve seldom read a letter written by my 
men describing warfare that has been ac- 
curate. Possibly the men know the minds 
of the folk to whom they are writing, but 
at times they have included their officers 
in wonderful stunts. This is pleasing, but 
the officer thanks God for its untruth. 

If possible, make a point of writing one 
letter a week to your home, and remem- 
ber that each week forgotten will cause 
extra pain. Women have such wonderful 
imaginations, and until you return, your 
family will have decided at least a hun- 
dred times to buy moui'ning. 

Find out, if possible, what arrangements 
are made in the event of casualties, 
whether a cable is sent, or what happens. 
Then let the family know accurately and 
clearly what will happen in the way of 



THE FOLKS AT HOME 239 

communicating the fact of your being 
killed or wounded. Then assure them, that 
until this connnunication reaches them 
you are absolutely safe. Eub this fact 
in, about ten times; even if youVe got to 
write it in block capitals. It might be a 
good idea for some printer to sell cards 
giving this information. Families could 
place in on the chimney piece. 

It is also a kindness when writing home, 
to mention the fact of your seeing fellows 
whose families live in the same section as 
yours. 

It is a bad thing to say in a letter that 
you have heard that Tom Jones is wounded 
or killed. He may be neither, but your 
family with tact and care will invariably 
communicate the sad news. The family 
of Tom Jones will suffer much, and pos- 
sibly buy mourning. They will be recov- 
ering from the first shock when a letter 
will arrive from Tom. They won't look at 
the date, but will get slightly comforted. 



240 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

Frankly, I think they'll get all muddled 
up for weeks ; then finally if he does die, 
they'll get a double dose. 

The battlefield is a place of lies. Riunors, 
rumors, always rimiors ! How often Lille 
has been captured ! How often the British 
have landed at Ostend ! 



CHAPTER XIV 

SOME REFLECTIONS, SENTI- 
MENTAL AND OTHERWISE 

To most people war seems a useless sort 
of thing, and it is indeed difficult to under- 
stand the logic of banding together and 
arming for the purpose of killing those 
with whom under different circumstances 
one might be on friendly, personal terms. 
If you think this now, when you get to the 
front you will think it even more, as you 
will notice that among the soldiers there 
is very little commonplace hatred shown. 
At times you won't be able to hate the 
Germans at all. As something hidden, 
they will be of vast interest to you. It 
may be months before you see a single 
individual. You may spend days, even 
weeks, quite close to where they are, but 
on both sides to be seen is to be dead. Of 

16 241 



242 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

course, you may see many scores of Ger- 
man prisoners and sometimes the killed, 
but a real live one going about perfectly 
free is a scarce bird. Officers at the front 
speak quite kindly about the Bosche, and 
sometimes the young officers express the 
wish to have them over to dinner to hear 
of their experiences. 

There are, however, some men who have 
seen the work of the Hun at his worst. 
There is the fearful story always told at 
the front of the crucified Canadian. Some 
officers have been too easy with German 
prisoners, have trusted them and have seen 
these same prisoners, at a favorable oppor- 
tunity, turn round and kill their men. 
Those men who have been imposed upon 
have now a great and bitter hatred, but the 
actual Germans in the trenches opposite 
will not inspire you with many angry 
feelings. You know, if people did not get 
killed and wounded in warfare it would 
be a very interesting game. The out-door 



SOME REFLECTIONS 243 

life, in spite of the cold, is very healthful, 
and officers who have suffered at home 
from lumbago and sometimes rheumatism 
have found their diseases disappear at the 
front. You know as well as do I the de- 
light of being with a crowd of fellows. 
One makes friends very quickly, and at the 
front there are often many happy days 
spent. 

You may be a sniper, a very good shot, 
and will be on duty at a certain point 
with a periscopic rifle. (Incidentally 
make use of the periscope and don't stick 
your head up. You may do it for weeks 
and even establish a reputation for great 
luck, but you will be stung sooner or later, 
also others will copy you and may not be 
so lucky. As a dead man you are quite 
useless to your country. As a wounded 
man, who has been wounded through not 
taking the right precautions, you are 
merely a nuisance.) When on sniping 
duty you will not regard the fellow you 



244 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

are after as a living human being with a 
wife and children at home anxious for 
news of him. You are spared that. You 
will merely regard the German as a tar- 
get. Generally if you get him, it is owing 
to his own carelessness in doing what you 
may be doing — showing himself. Some 
officers are often careless — especially in 
the Infantry. They have been in those 
same trenches at times for months, and 
having never been killed have grown care- 
less. One can't blame them. The thing 
has become so familiar. 

Quite often if you have time to think 
of anything besides the fact that you have 
a working party that night ; that the bully- 
beef is hard and tough ; that it will prob- 
ably rain any moment, and the trench will 
be all mud in a few hours ; that the piece 
of parapet you helped to mend has been 
knocked down by a trench mortar shell, 
you may wonder why men fight at all. 
Millions have been wondering the same 



SOME REFLECTIONS 245 

tkLng, SO you are not the first. Some 
people say vaguely that this war is a com- 
mercial war. Precisely what they mean it 
is difficult to see. Others blame England 
for the whole trouble. Many millions 
blame the Kaiser. One often hears after 
there has been an extra piece of '^ fright- 
fulness," the remark, ^^I don't know how 
that Kaiser can sleep at nights. ' ' He must 
sometimes get insomnia. 

Perhaps the real reason why this war 
and many others have come upon us is that 
hate and its attendants, jealousy, envy, 
suspicion, has got the better of love with 
its attendants, manliness, trust, charity, 
decency, purity, and all the things that 
prevent men from being worse than ani- 
mals. * ' By ambition fell the angels, ' ' said 
Shakespeare. Neither England nor Amer- 
ica were particularly ambitious. They 
had all that they wanted — plenty of land 
awaiting development. An American 
found himself possessed of a wonderful 



246 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

large country and was contented ; a Briton 
found the British flag flying all over the 
world. A German travelled and found 
himself always or nearly always under a 
foreign flag. He thought how much better 
it would be to have the world under the 
influence of his own Kultur. It worried 
him and irritated him. The Kaiser 
thought of his own, and his own peoples' 
greatness, their efficiency, and he wanted 
a place in the sun. He thought of his own 
family's years of successes. It was not 
enough for Germany to have equal priv- 
ileges with Great Britain in trade. The 
German merchant marine by its efficiency, 
fine ships, was catching up and would 
doubtlessly have passed that of Great 
Britain. Some people in the British 
Dominions preferred to travel in German 
ships. They were cheaper and in some 
ways rather nicer. This was not enough. 
The German autocracy saw the chance of 
being a world Empire. The desire for 



SOME REFLECTIONS 247 

power was too great. Ambition crept in 
and Germany fell. 

She has fallen very low. Even we, pos- 
sessed of quite a number of faults, cannot 
a:fford to do anything else but hate her; 
but remember that part of the responsi- 
bility for war rests on our shoulders as 
part of the human race. We have got 
away from our old ideals, all of us, and not 
Germany alone. People are very fond of 
saying that Great Britain is fighting for 
her existence, and for nothing else. They 
are always saying it. They don't give us 
a chance for higher impulses. But per- 
haps there are some British people who 
think differently, perhaps the great ma- 
jority do. Perhaps many of them are 
fighting because Germany in their eyes 
has proved herself to be rotten at the core. 
She has been very unsportsman-like. Her 
organized use of gas in battle is enough 
to make most men glad to take up the 
sword and go at her— you will be sure of 



248 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

it after you have seen a man die of gas 
poisoning. Don 't trust the enemy an inch, 
but remember that when you feel like pay- 
ing him back in his own coin that you 
are an American, not a Hun. The great- 
est victory you can ever win is the victory 
over hatred — generous treatment to a 
fallen foe, but don't be a fool with them — 
take no chances. They can be unbeliev- 
ingly dirty in their methods. 

During trench warfare a prisoner, 
either dead or alive, is particularly valu- 
able, as his hat badge, buttons, and papers 
will prove useful in determining how the 
enemy's troops are stationed. 

One day one of the men in the trenches 
over which we were shooting was wounded 
in a patrol skirmish. He got lost and 
could not be found before dawn. He had 
evidently fainted. When daylight arrived 
he must have revived, and was discovered 
just outside the trench about twenty yards. 
In decent warfare the Red Cross people 



SOME REFLECTIONS 249 

could have gone out and got him. Not so 
when fighting the Bosche. The wounded 
man commenced to make a terrible noise, 
and the men in the trench all volunteered 
to bring him. in. The officers wisely for- 
bade this as it would be certain death, and 
there was no point in sacrificing four men 
to save one. It was terrible and the m^en 
were very much worried. All day the 
groans and yells could be heard. Finally, 
at dusk the officer went out with four men 
to get him in. Perhaps it was too early, 
at any rate, two of the men were killed 
and the other two got in all right with the 
wounded man, but he died the moment he 
was brought into the trench. It was a good 
bit of work for the Germans. They, of 
course, all day had had a machine gun 
fixed, and as soon as they suspected a 
rescue they rained bullets into him. They 
were evidently pleased with the work they 
had done, for the next day a Tommy lying 
on the outside of the wire was seen to 



250 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

be moving his arm every minute. The 
trenches were about two hundred yards 
apart, and he could be plainly seen. It 
was decided to attempt to get him in that 
night. Towards the afternoon the colonel 
came down with a very good telescope, 
and fixing it between two sandbags loose 
at the top of the parapet had a good look. 
Fortunately, he was able to see that the 
man was dead. He wondered at the move- 
ment. On looking closer he discovered a 
string fixed to the Tommy's wrist which 
was being pulled occasionally. Pretty 
clever, eh ? So the Germans have learned 
to make use of the manly impulses of their 
enemy. 

When you hear the ^^Kamerad pardon'' 
stuff, it doesn't mean that they have al- 
ways finished with you. Keep them cov- 
ered. Don't let those hands come down 
till you are sure that they are unarmed. 
When sure that they are harmless, then 
your chance comes to be generous, and 



SOME KEFLECTIONS 251 

you will be. Our Tommies generally are. 
One sees German prisoners looking happy, 
smoking cigarettes given to them by their 
captors. German prisoners arrive at their 
camps in England with boxes, large boxes 
of cigarettes given them by English people 
on the journey. Of course, they may have 
sold their helmets or their buttons for 
them. I wonder if they will show you 
much kindness if you are a prisoner. They 
hate the British most at present — ^the day 
will come when they may hate you more. 
The German soldier lacks a sense of 
humor, you know. 

America, according to the remarks of 
President Wilson, is entering this war in 
defense of her honor to keep democracy 
alive. You haven't the slightest interest 
in democracy. You leave politics to your 
senators and representatives. However, 
you do know that the reason you are enter- 
ing this war is mixed up with the dirty 
tricks of the Germans. You are conscious 



252 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

of the fact that you are not as dirty as the 
Bosche, and you are going to teach him a 
lesson. 

A long, long time ago a Man was born 
into this world who spent the whole time 
of his existence fighting a similar battle to 
yours. He found the world full of preju- 
dice, wars, and rumors of wars. Religion 
which ought to have been the saviour of 
the people had become the home of intol- 
erance and vice, sometimes cruelty and 
ambition. Tie home of civilization was 
corrupt and foul. Men had sunk lower 
than animals. Still, He fought the battle 
and in the e:ffort he died, and although he 
died, he left one big thing behind him — 
love. It looked for centuries as though 
this thing that he had left behind was 
going to conquer hate. He established a 
club and gave it the gift of love as its 
greatest weapon. The club used it with 
wonderful results. Success ruined it. 
Hate, although beaten at first, sought a 



SOME REFLECTIONS 253 

subtle method. It clothed itself in the 
garments of love and entered the society 
where it was welcomed. It has not yet 
beaten love altogether, but it seems at 
times very near victory. This war proves 
that it has been very, very successful. 
When this club realizes the position and 
is able to detect the canker that is sapping 
its life, love may have another chance. The 
world may be freed from war. 

Although you are not going definitely 
to fight for love, you are fighting that the 
poor people of the world may live in safety. 
You are going to fight against unwise am- 
bition which is the big disciple of hate. 
You are, therefore, more on the side of 
love than on the other side. Therefore, the 
Soldier who died fighting — as you may 
die — is willing to help you. It is not sug- 
gested that you should become unpleas- 
antly religious. During your service you'll 
meet men with whom you'd enjoy hell, 
but while fighting the Germans remember 



254 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

that you are fighting for the right side. 
You'll have many troubles, and the mother 
at home will be praying for you. It would 
be a good idea to pray a bit for yourself. 
No one will laugh at you. It gets very 
boring to read of heroes in books saying 
their prayers, and other folk laughing at 
them. You are not of sufficient interest 
for the others to laugh at. You may want 
to say your prayers for the wife and kid- 
dies at home, but do not do it because you 
are afraid the others will laugh. They 
won't! 

I might advise you to take a bible with 
you and read it. Your mother will give 
you one. You have all read of bibles stop- 
ping bullets as all that sort of thing pleases 
certain people, and the clergy are able to 
make use of such instances in their ser- 
mons. But there is a little that is romantic 
about it, for a bullet is a funny thing, and 
can be affected in strange ways. When 
one stops to think, I suppose it is not so 
strange — it is no more strange than a 



SOME REFLECTIONS 255 

huge sailing ship or liner being affected 
by the comparatively small rudder at the 
stern. A bullet will take the way of least 
resistance; when it knocks against any- 
thing hard or tough, it will not merely 
stop, but will tend to go aside, and there- 
fore a bible in a man's breast pocket will 
tend to turn it aside and make it continue 
in a circle away from the man's body — 
but it might easily hurt the next fellow ! 

It always seems wrong to suggest the 
interference of God in warfare. God 
gave the world love, the greatest miracle 
there is, and we have just thrown it aside ; 
and we have jolly well got to take what 
comes and take it like men if we can. A 
man carrying love in his mental knap- 
sack has a greater protection against that 
death which is more horrible than the 
actual killing of his body than the fellow 
with a bible in his breast pocket. When 
I say love, I don't mean that sloppy sort 
of feeling sometimes displayed by a fond 



256 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

aunt for a futile nephew. I don't mean 
that a fellow should endeavor to emanate 
sunshine from himself and exhaust his 
comrades — the Polly Anna business. 
What I mean is that a fellow should strive 
to be a perfect man. Manliness these days 
suggests at once a fellow who is good at 
base ball or football, or who can use his 
fists well. Certainly these are a great help. 
But there are fellows going about who are 
the most perfect athletes, lauded and ad- 
mired by their friends, but who have about 
as much soul and brain as a good-looking 
bull. They are not men really. They are 
just nice animals. 

Of course, we all admire and look up to 
the aristocracy of beef ; there is something 
to it, but remember that you have got a 
soul and you have got a brain. They are 
more important than your body. They 
make you different from the animals, and 
if you neglect them altogether you will do 
little for the world. You may have a good 



SOME KEFLECTIONS 257 

time while you are young, but when you 
get older there will be little really to you. 
So the ideal man and the ideal soldier is 
the man who refuses to neglect any part 
of himself. An unclean Christian is a 
revolting kind of person ; a foul-mouthed, 
foul-minded athlete is much worse. If 
you can make the Christian clean physic- 
ally and the athlete clean mentally and 
spiritually you perhaps strike the ideal 
man. 

At the front you may see very few men 
reading their bibles, or indeed, saying their 
prayers, although some do. This does not 
mean that the spirit of love is entirely 
absent. It struggles very hard to be seen 
and heard, and often succeeds. You will 
have many religious arguments. Most 
men argue about religion — it is a diverting 
topic. When in such an argument you'll 
probably remember the things you were 
taught at Sunday school as you sat there 
in the heat listening to the lady telling 

17 



258 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

you about the things of the Spirit, while 
you were only conscious of a fleshy desire 
to get out among the cool trees. As the 
other fellows may have similar data the 
argument will be a fair one and will lead 
to nothing. 

Tou will do better by reading the bible. 
If you do read it, read the New Testa- 
ment, and study the life of Jesus. He was 
a very perfect man, you know. There is 
nothing in his life that you can criticize. 
If you do this, it will prevent war from 
killing your soul. It does this very often 
to men. It is better to die with your soul 
than to live without it. War is the eldest 
son of hate. You have got to fight for all 
that you hold dear. It would be useless to 
kneel down in the trenches and pray to 
God to kill all the Germans. If we were 
all perfect and free from guilt ourselves, 
one could imagine it being possible. So 
develop the impulses of decency towards 
your friends. Remember that to get hell 



SOME REFLECTIONS 259 

from your officers is not a manly sort of 
martyrdom, although your friends will 
sympathize. If you are doing some work 
do it as decently as possible. You needn't 
over-do it. There are, however, occasions 
when a man has to work so hard at night 
that in the morning he can hardly stand. 
If you are sent out on duty alone, try and 
not seize this chance to loaf. You seldom 
will have to work fearfully hard. Most 
hard work at the front is for your own 
protection. If you loaf on this and let the 
other fellow do it you are merely a rotter. 
Sometimes after a long weary march 
arriving near the enemy at about eight 
o'clock P.M., you will be ordered to dig in. 
Your impulse will be to lie down and sleep 
for a hundred years. But the morning 
must not find you exposed, so you have just 
got to get down to it. Then you will be 
able to size up your comrades, only don't 
be too hard in your judgments. Some 
men can't stand as much as others. Still, 



260 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

many in the dark do very little, and some- 
one has got to do it. It is then that the 
spiritual side of a man must help. The 
body sleepy and tired wants to take con- 
trol. The spirit of fairness to your 
friends, fairness to your officers, will com- 
mence a fight. Sometimes the spirit will 
be beaten. 

You may have worked hard all your 
life; you may have done more work in 
your life than you will ever do in the army, 
but on some occasions at the front even 
for the strongest man it is pretty terrible. 
You see that in everything at the front a 
man has to decide to follow the highest 
part of his nature. In civilian life a man 
seeks advancement. There is no chance 
for the slacker. A man's desire to get on, 
to feed his wife and his children, and to 
make himself a name in the world (if he 
cannot bluff), sometimes keeps him from 
being a slacker. In the army it is differ- 
ent. Of course, some men seek to rise 



SOME REFLECTIONS 261 

from the ranks, but in times of stress there 
seems little room for ambition. There is 
nothing to urge a man onwards but his 
sense of duty. You see, there are bound- 
less opportunities for slacking at night. 
Often no one can talk above a whisper; 
the N.C.O.'s can't see, and the officer is 
working just as hard as you are. I hope 
you understand what I am getting at. It 
is a little difficult to explain. What I 
mean, in a few words, is that the man who 
on every occasion tries to do his very best, 
who is fairly decent to his friends, not 
merely an amusing companion, who thinks 
out things and tries to see the object of 
orders and works hard even if he does not 
understand them, who shows mercy to a 
fallen foe, even if that foe is a soldier of 
the Kaiser, and better still, who shows 
mercy to his friends, is doing more than 
carrying a bible. Try not to let warfare 
ruin you. You won't be able to come out 
entirely unscathed ; but try. 



252 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

What is a bible to you — a few thousand 
pages of printed matter bound in a leather 
cover. Why should it give you protection. 
Why should it protect your breast from 
receiving a bullet any more than the man 
who carried his bible in his knapsack. 
And yet there is that in the bible, if one 
can only get it, that will make you safe 
from all the ^* whizz bangs," all the 
** crumps, '^ and ** Jack Johnstons," all the 
bullets in the world. It is something that 
will make you live longer than the man 
who dies in his bed at the age of eighty. 
It is the spirit of love, the spirit of Jesus, 
the perfect man. The soldier who fought 
a losing battle and yet won. If you are a 
decent soldier you will be fighting with 
Him, only you won't know it, perhaps, and 
if it is your luck to die with Him beside 
you, it will be a fine thing. I guess this 
seems a bit religious. I got it from my 
chaplain at Cambridge; he looked as if 
he knew. One has tried and one has failed. 



SOME REFLECTIONS 263 

However, I put it to you. There is a pic- 
ture, sentimental, perhaps, but effective, 
of a soldier dying with his head leaning 
against one of the large crucifixes, so com- 
mon in Prance. He has a Red Cross arm- 
let, if I remember. The face of the figure 
on the cross is looking down with sorrow 
and sympathy. The whole thing is a lit- 
tle terrible when one thinks about it. Do 
you know the whole of the present battle- 
field is full of crucifixes? All the farms 
have their shrines. Every house has some- 
where or other about it the picture of The 
Cross. It is a terrible reminder of the 
battle raging between love and hate. The 
Man on the cross came into the world bear- 
ing love to all. Hate killed him. He 
brought the antidote for war, we spurned 
it; all of us, not Germany alone. And 
now the greatest war between love and 
hate is raging. 

I don't mean to suggest that we repre- 
sent love, and the others represent hate, 



264 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

but in warfare the battle goiug on between 
these two goes on in a man's mind whether 
he is a German or an American. The 
odds are on the side of hate, so look out. 
The only thing is to be the perfect sol- 
dier. Do your duty by your country, by 
your comrades, by your officers, and by 
the enemy, but don't be a fool in regard 
to the last named. You know the Ger- 
mans as individuals cannot all be bad. 
Their officers have chosen hate as an effec- 
tive weapon. We have laughed at their 
*^Got strafe England," but remember, 
when a doctor is fighting disease he must 
take precautions to avoid infection. 

I'd like to write a lot about reading 
your bible every night and all that sort 
of thing, but I did it but seldom myself, 
so cannot say a word. What I can say is 
that the best kind of soldier is the fellow 
who does his duty by his comrades, not by 
bringing in a wounded one in a melodra- 
matic way, but by using his brains as well 



SOME REFLECTIONS 265 

as his muscles to think out where he can 
go wrong, and by avoiding crimes that 
affect the happiness and comfort of his 
comrades. I never saw a great deal of the 
chaplain. Some of us are very lazy, and 
except when marching my men to church 
parade, I seldom went to church. It was 
a little difficult. When a fellow is lucky 
enough not to be on duty at the observa- 
tion post on Sunday, it is rather nice to 
slack about. In the Artillery during the 
winter Sunday is as much as possible a 
day of rest. However, it was nice to get 
to church sometimes. 

I remember once, however, when we 
were in reserve, the chaplain asking me 
to prepare for a celebration of the Holy 
Communion. It was to be at about six 
in the evening. I borrowed an old melo- 
deon from the parish priest, and lugged 
it along to the battery mechanic who 
mended it and stopped it from wheezing 
as much as possible. I then got a table 



266 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

from Madame. She being a good Roman 
catholic, offered me candle sticks and a 
crucifix. The chaplain was a very low 
churchman, so I knew he would not stand 
for the crucifix, and some people in Eng- 
land who are not very religious, as a rule 
hate a high church service. I knew the 
parson wanted everyone to be happy, so I 
told Madame as tactfully as possible, that 
as we were protestants, the crucifix would 
not be necessary. I asked her in bad 
French if she had a plain cross, and she 
promptly got a screw driver and removed 
the figure. It looked irreverent, but it 
wasn't. Marie Louise got some vases 
filled with flowers, and we soon had fixed 
up a pretty little altar. We had merely 
notified the men about the service and 
just a few came. The others were a little 
frightened. The service commenced. The 
organ wheezed out some Communion 
hymns, and soon a few more men stood in 
the offing. All present communicated, al- 



SOME REFLECTIONS 267 

though most of them had never done so 
before. They were there chiefly to please 
the officer who had asked them. It was a 
fine night. There was no religious fervor. 
I don't know if anyone was impressed. It 
was just a plain service, the greater part 
of the men present had never been to a 
Holy Communion service before. The sky 
behind the altar presented a mass of little 
flashes. They were the work of anti-air- 
craft guns. It was beautiful, really. -You 
see, it was just getting dusk, and the sky 
was getting red and blue as the sun went 
down, and amidst the beauty of the sun- 
set these little flashes looked pretty. I 
remember hoping that no one had got hurt 
that Sunday evening. Marie Louise, a 
friend, and her mother stood off looking at 
the mass of ' - les soldats Brittanique. ' ' In 
France the Protestants are not mixed up 
with the Catholics like they are in America 
and England. Hence there is little or no 
religious intolerance. 



268 HOW TO LIVE AT THE FRONT 

It is curious to see the French peasants 
going off to church. They all dress up a 
great deal, but chiefly are they careful 
about their foot wear. Monsieur's shoes 
are very bright and clean, Madame 's are 
also clean, and Marie Louise has on all 
her finery. In places where they have to 
walk a good way in the mud they wear 
things that look like the stirrup of a saddle 
or the contrivance that a man wears on 
his foot if it is shorter than the other. 
They are made of iron and raise a person 
about six inches from the ground. The 
result is that the people arrive at church 
with clean shoes. 

I went to the parish church one Sun- 
day in France. The cure seems to take 
up a collection for himself. There was also 
another collection for the poor. There 
seemed to be three that day. I had no 
change, but put in a five franc bill when 
the cure came to me. He was a little 
astonished and thanked me. Madame at 



SOME REFLECTIONS 269 

the billet saw this and said that a person 
who gave five francs to the cure had more 
money than sense. I gave it really as an 
apologetic offering because I had met a 
small fox terrier outside who had decided 
that I must be his long-lost master, and 
during the service he got into the church, 
rushed about, disturbed the procession, 
and finally got on my back as I knelt there. 
It was useless to deny that the dog was 
mine, and the people were a little annoyed. 
They said the offering should not have 
been made to the cure, but to the poor. 

And now I am going to close these notes. 
There is not much to them, I fear, but if 
they can help you a little we will be glad. 
They are just a jumble of ideas and 
thoughts, but they are mostly true. 



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